Generally speaking, a motor vehicle is not protected from unreasonable searches and seizures to the same extent as a home. Our State’s Supreme Court has further reduced that level of protection. William Witt was pulled over on Route 48 in Carneys Point in Salem County in December 2012. Witt’s high…
Cleveland, Ohio has become the latest city to enter into a consent decree with the United States Justice Department (“DOJ”) concerning the conduct of its police force. Other cities that have previously entered into similar agreements include New Orleans, Seattle and Detroit. The consent decree stemmed from a DOJ investigation…
The United States Supreme Court decided Grady v. North Carolina on March 30, 2015. After completing his prison term for sex offenses, the State determined that Grady was a recidivist sex offender, and wanted to place him on satellite-based monitoring. Grady argued that the monitoring program, which required him to…
The United States Supreme Court decided Rodriguez v. United States on April 21, 2015. The decision enhances Fourth Amendment protections in cases involving motor vehicle stops. Briefly, Rodriguez, the driver, and his passenger were stopped by a Valley, Nebraska police officer for veering onto the shoulder of a State highway…
The United States Supreme Court has ruled 8-1 that a police officer can stop a vehicle based upon a mistaken understanding of the law without violating the federal Constitution. Heien v. North Carolina, No. 13-604. An officer in North Carolina stopped a vehicle because of a broken brake light. State…
On June 25, 2014, the US Supreme Court released its decision in Riley v. California and the companion case of US v. Wurie. The Court held that the police may not search digital information on a cell phone that was seized from an individual in reliance on the “search incident…
The New Jersey Supreme Court recently decided two cases that comment on the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Fernandez v. California. These cases are important to understand the latest New Jersey developments in the important area of consent searches, and should be read carefully by all defense attorneys. State…
Generally speaking, consent searches are on the long list of unwanted events that create additional hurdles to mounting an effective defense in any criminal case. Fernandez v. California, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on February 25, 2014, exacerbates these problems. Fernandez, a suspect in a violent robbery was seen…
Edward Ates appealed his Bergen County conviction and life sentence for the murder of his son-in-law in Ramsey, New Jersey. The Appellate Division affirmed, and the New Jersey Supreme Court granted certification to consider, among other issues, Ates’ assertion that New Jersey’s Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act was unconstitutional.…
Antoine Cortez-Dutrieville wanted to challenge the seizure of evidence, including heroin and other paraphernalia, from the home of his child’s mother, Portia Newell. At some point, however, Newell had obtained an order of protection which, among other things: (a) barred him from contacting her for most purposes, (b) “evicted and…