A troubling case expanded the reach of “official misconduct” to a volunteer firefighter in State v. Quezada, 402 N.J. Super. 277 (App. Div. 2008). This defendant had just begun volunteering as a firefighter with the Prospect Park Volunteer Fire Department in 2003. He started the fire academy in June and…
Read More

A unanimous United States Supreme Court ruled that police must obtain a warrant to search the information on a suspect’s cellphone, in Riley vs. California. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the final sentence of the decision to leave no doubt about the instructions from the Supreme Court: “Our answer to the…
Read More

The United State Supreme Court Justices – average age is 68 – just schooled everyone about the quantity of data stored on your cell phone. In Riley vs. California, the Supreme Court ruled that the police need a warrant before searching the data inside a smart phone because the data…
Read More

Our Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects the rights of peoples, as follows: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or…
Read More

Today, in State v. Pedro Peralta, A-5761-12 (Decided October 31, 2014), the New Jersey Appellate Division issued a published opinion upholding the conviction for Driving under the Influence (DUI), when the police failed to read the required statutory warnings. This decision rejected a prior contrary decision. The three-judge panel upheld…
Read More

On December 24, 2014, the Appellate Division allowed — for the first time in New Jersey — a trial judge to wait to decide on the prosecutor’s request to admit evidence of another crime until after the defendant testified. Ultimately, the defendant decided not to testify since she did not…
Read More