Whether an informant’s confidential tip can be the basis for a traffic stop.

Submitted by New Jersey New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark In the Mesadieu case, the Appellate Division held that Mesadieu’s detention was lawful.  The New Jersey Supreme Court has established under State v. Davis, 104, N.J. 490, 504 (1986) that a court must evaluate the totality of the circumstances surrounding the police-citizen encounter to determine the…

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NEW JERSEY MENTAL HEALTH RECORD EXPUNGEMENT

In re E.C. Petition for Expungement Appellate Docket No.: A-3713-13T2 Decided July 8, 2015 Submitted by New Jersey New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark In an unpublished opinion, the Appellate Division of New Jersey reviewed the requirements for the expungement of mental health records and produced a legal standard for same. In E.C., E.C. was a…

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State v. Almonte – Severance of Trial

Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark State v. Almonte Appellate Docket No.: A-0536-18 Decided July 27, 2021 In a recent unpublished opinion, the Appellate Division of New Jersey reviewed whether failure to sever a trial from a codefendant was appropriate, even when the codefendant was not present for the trial and his post arrest…

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State v. Almonte – Prosecutor Misconduct

Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark State v. Almonte Appellate Docket No.: A-0536-18 Decided July 27, 2021 In a recent unpublished opinion, the Appellate Division of New Jersey reviewed whether there was prosecutor misconduct when the prosecutor told of testimony that was not used in the opening statement and vouched to the credibility to…

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State v. Roman-Rosado

Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark The dual cases of State v. Roman-Rosado and State v. Carter deal with when might police effectuate a motor vehicle stop on the basis of a violation of N.J.S.A. 39:3-33, which reads in part as follows: “No person shall drive a motor vehicle which has a license plate…

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Case Brief: State v. Figueroa

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division (2021) Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark Parties:               Plaintiff-Respondent: State of New Jersey Defendant-Appellant: Andre Figueroa Facts:                  Figueroa was spotted by a police officer emerging from between two houses late at night in a vacation town during winter.  Most people are away during winter and it was…

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