On June 10, 2017, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided State v. Dunbar. The unanimous decision overturned state precedent requiring reasonable suspicion of contraband before police can deploy a canine sniff. Suspicionless canine sniffs are now permitted in New Jersey so long as they do not prolong an otherwise lawful seizure. Since 1975, The New […]
Removal of Car Passengers: When Circumstances Present Reason
As to the State’s contention that the Smith standard has been eroded by subsequent decisions, the Court observes that no decision since Smith, including Sloane, has implicitly or explicitly modified or overruled Smith. Here, the Court reaffirms the Smith heightened-caution standard for questions of passenger removal: officers may remove passengers only when the circumstances present […]
Removal of Car Passengers: Lawful Traffic Stops
To be lawful, an automobile stop must be based on reasonable and articulable suspicion that an offense, including a minor traffic offense, has been or is being committed. S.R. failed to wear his seatbelt and therefore violated the traffic code. *The stop followed the detectives’ observation of the traffic code violation and was therefore valid. […]
Removal of Car Passengers: Justification
Defendant later moved to suppress the seized narcotics and paraphernalia; the trial court denied the motion. The court found the stop to be lawful because of the passenger’s failure to wear a seatbelt. The court also found the passenger’s removal from the car to be lawful because the officers had reasonable and articulable suspicion of […]
Removal of Car Passengers: Proper Responses
On January 31, 2017, Justice Timpone, wrote for a unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court in the case of State v. Tawain Bacome. In this appeal, the Court clarified the circumstances under which police officers may require a passenger in an automobile to exit a vehicle after a valid stop. In April 2011, detectives observed defendant […]
Reasonable Suspicion and Motor Vehicle Stops (Part 3)
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, Paragraph 7 of the New Jersey Constitution provide that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. A motor-vehicle stop by the police constitutes a seizure of persons […]
Reasonable Suspicion Motor Vehicle Stops (Part 2)
As the officer approached the driver’s side of the vehicle, he did not give the driver a warning to turn off her high beams, but instead instructed her to produce her license, registration, and insurance cards. With the driver’s side window down, he could smell burnt marijuana. He then walked around the vehicle, asked defendant, […]
Reasonable Suspicion and Motor Vehicle Stops (Part 1)
On July 2016, in the case of State v. Al-Sharif Scriven, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the trial court and Appellate Division properly concluded that the defendant’s motor-vehicle stop violated the Federal and State Constitutions. The language of the high-beam statute, N.J.S.A. 39:3-60, is unambiguous; drivers are required to dim their high […]
Gap Time Credit
In State v. Walters, Docket No. a-0203-14 (App. Div. 2016), the Appellate Division addressed whether a criminal defendant is entitled to receive “gap-time credit” for time served in county jail on a Title 39 motor vehicle violation. Walters was charged with DWI on November 16, 2013. On November 24, 2013, he was arrested for an […]
Laurick Relief – IDRC Letter To Court
The following novel arguments were successfully submitted on behalf of one of Fred Sisto’s clients in order to reduce his two day jail sentence to twelve hours at the Intoxicated Driver Resource Center: When Laurick relief is granted for a second DWI, it is within the Court’s discretion to sentence the defendant from 12 to […]
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