State v. Nelson, New Jersey Supreme Court Decided May 8, 2019 Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. Commentary: The court rules that a 40 minute wait for a drug sniffing dog to arrive based on relatively flimsy ‘independent reasonable and articulable suspicion” of the detective who conducted a motor vehicle stop was not…
There must be specific and articulable facts that, at the time of the search of a vehicle, a person is capable of gaining immediate control of a weapon or weapons Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. State v. Ortiz New Jersey Appellate Division May 6, 2019 (Not Approved for Publication) Facts: The salient…
State v. Ortiz New Jersey Appellate Division May 6, 2019 (Not Approved for Publication) Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. In reviewing a motion to suppress evidence, this court must defer to the trial court’s fact findings underlying its decision, “so long as those findings are supported by sufficient credible evidence in the…
State v. James Rogers Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. An appeal of a municipal court conviction must first be addressed by the Law Division de novo. R. 3:23-8. The role of the Law Division is to make independent findings of facts and conclusions of law based on the record developed in the…
State v. Juan Rodriguez May 3, 2019 NJ Appellate Division (Approved for Publication) Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. Facts: The pertinent facts that emerged at the suppression hearing were substantially undisputed by the parties. On January 1, 2018, Police Officer Kevin Olah of Warren Township was in a marked patrol vehicle at a gas station…
State v. Chow, N.J. Super. App. Div. Decided April 302, 2019 Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. The state appealed from an order that admitted defendant into the Middlesex County Pretrial Intervention Program over its objection. Defendant had been charged with two counts of third-degree invasion of privacy for posting nude photographs of a…
Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. Restitution has become an additional area of criminal litigation in recent years. As a result the appellate courts have ruled that even if restitution has to be paid, the trial court must conduct a hearing addressing whether the defendant has the ability to pay given his/her particular…
Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. The New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has issued a proposed new rule to the Court Rules to effectuate the Emergent Preventive Order Statute that was recently enacted by the New Jersey legislature in 2018. This statute authorizes law-enforcement or any other interested party to…
State v. R.M.M., N.J. Super. App. Div. 4/3/2019) Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. In this case the defendant appealed a denial by the PTI coordinator as well as criminal case manager and what division judge. The appellate division found this was yet another circumstance the prosecutors office abuse their discretion and not to…
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New Jersey Survivors Justice Act: Sentencing Reform for Abuse Victims
Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark In January 2026, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law a pair of bills known as the Survivors Justice Act (S-4870/A-5968 and S-4871/A-5969). This landmark legislation, championed by Senator Angela V. McKnight, Senator M. Teresa Ruiz, and other lawmakers, amends the state’s criminal code to allow courts…