Legally Speaking by Cassandra Savoy, Esq. OP/ED
Good News & Bad News From The Courts And The Legislature
Most people never even visited the Superior Court of New Jersey. Most people’s only contact to the court system is in the municipal court level. Therefore, what happens in the municipal court is really important to most of us. In 2020, the court and the Legislature presented a mixed bag rendering some good news, and some bad news for us, the residents of New Jersey. Let’s take a look at some of 2020’s legal events.
Bad News . . .Sleeping drunk behind the wheel equals drunk driving
In State v. Thompson the police were called to the parking lot of a convenience store where Thompson was found sleeping behind the wheel of his car. Because it was February, the engine was running. When awakened, Thompson admitted that he had had a couple of drinks, and when asked to take the field sobriety test, he failed. He was convicted of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated in the municipal court and appealed the decision.
Thompson said that the state had failed to prove that he was “operating a motor vehicle” or that he had the intent to operate a vehicle. The Appellate Division held that “when one enters a car and puts one’s self in the driver’s seat, that person is in control of the car and an intention to drive the vehicle combined with physical movements to put the car in motion constitutes operation.”
The conviction was affirmed the conviction with the court going on to say that operating a motor vehicle could include sleeping behind the wheel with the engine running even if the vehicle is not observed in motion.
And so, the moral of the story is that drunk driving is that drunk driving is a very, very serious offense in New Jersey. Don’t drink and drive. This means also don’t drink and get behind the wheel of a car even if you need to sleep it off. And, by the way, in case you are looking for the loophole. The loophole is not sleeping it off in the back seat of the car either as that, too will likely bring you a conviction. The courts will bend over backwards to implement the legislative policy that drunk driving in New Jersey is absolutely forbidden.
Good News . . . No more phony stops
You know how police always seem to find the darndest reasons to stop your car? Well one of those reasons has just been ruled out by the court!
The officer who stopped Roman-Rosado was on “proactive” detail (whatever that is). He stopped Roman-Rosado because he claimed that his license plate was partially covered in violation of N.J.S.A. 39:3-33. In point of fact, while the officer claimed that parts of the license plate were concealed in, all of the numbers and letters on the license plate were visible and only “Garden State” was concealed under the license plate cover. As a result of the stop, the police found a handgun. Roman-Rosado moved to suppress the gun, and loss. He ultimately pled guild to second-degree possession of a weapon. He appealed.
Police can only stop you when there is a reasonable suspicion that you are committing crime. There were two questions before the court on appeal. The first question was whether violation of N.J.S.A. 39:3-33 created a reasonable suspicion of a crime to permit a warrantless search; and second, whether the subsequent search and seizure of the handgun was legally permissible. The court ruled a resounding “NO” to both questions. The court held that based on the common understanding of the words “conceal” and “obscure”, there was no reasonable suspicion to stop defendant’s car for violating N.J.S.A. 39:3-33 where there was minimal covering of “Garden State” did not make the words indecipherable. Therefore, the seized gun was inadmissible to prove a second-degree offense for certain persons. Hooray for the Fourth Amendment!
Good News . . .
The new expungement law makes expungement more available and will increase the number of records of arrests and convictions that can be expunged.
S4154 provides that a person having been convicted of a crime and no more than three disorderly persons or petty disorderly persons offenses and does not otherwise have any subsequent conviction of a crime or a disorderly offense or petty disorderly offense for at least ten years shall be eligible for expungement of his criminal records. The caveat is that you the deal is off if, for example, you are convicted of a petty disorderly offense. In other words, there must be ten years since the last offense in any jurisdiction. The value to those who are having difficulty finding employment because an old criminal conviction cannot be measured.
The best part of the law is that it creates a petition process for “clean slate” expungement for resident who have not committed an offense in ten years and who have not been convicted of the most serious crimes, like sexual assault, murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery. The bill also requires the State to implement an automated clean slate expungement system, which will be developed by a task force charge with studying the technological, fiscal and practical issues and challenges associated with such a system. Additionally, the bill requires that low-level marijuana convictions be sealed upon the disposition of a case, preventing those convictions from being used against those individuals in the future. It also makes numerous other changes to existing expungement procedures, including the creation of an e-filing system that would eliminate filing fees to petition for expungement. Stay tuned!
The law became effective June 15, 2020, but the automated system will not be fully implemented for a while. If you are eligible for an expungement, you will have to do it the old fashioned way. You will have to get a lawyer and filing for the expungement.
