Posts Tagged ‘exigency’
The Most Important Blog You’ll Read if You Drive In New Jersey
Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. This is the third blog in a series of blogs about the recent N.J. Supreme Court decision in State v. Witt—one of the most controversial cases in recent memory. The last two blogs discussed the facts of the case, and the history of case law in New…
Read MoreState v. Witt Part II: The Confusion of Exigency
Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. A previous blog presented the facts of State v. Witt and explained that up until now Pena-Flores was the governing case in New Jersey when it came to warrantless vehicle searches. Under that case a police officer must meet three requirements to search a vehicle without a…
Read MoreIf You’ve Ever Been Pulled Over You Must Read This Blog: Part I
Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark. On September 24 the N.J. Supreme Court issued an opinion in State v. Witt that may be one of the most important in recent memory for people facing criminal charges arising out of traffic stops. With a dissent, the total length of the written opinion is 95…
Read MoreThe officers were not justified in searching defendant’s auto due to the lack of any exigency and P.C. for such a warrantless motor vehicle stop
An officer must smell the odor of the illegal substance when they are lawfully in a position from which they could smell the odor. The smell of burnt marijuana, by a trained and experienced officer, emanating from passenger compartment of a legally stopped motor vehicle creates probable cause to believe that a violation of…
Read MoreLatest New Jersey ruling on US Supreme Court’s McNeeley Ruling: STATE VS. JONES
Submitted by New Jersey DWI Attorney, Jeffrey Hark A New Jersey appeals court has upended a trial judge’s suppression of blood evidence taken from a woman who caused an accident after getting behind the wheel with a blood-alcohol level of more than four times the legal limit. The Appellate Division thwarted the defendant’s efforts to…
Read MoreEmergency Circumstacnes: Exigency in State v. Eckel,
Submitted by New Jersey DWI Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark Our court has outlined exigency in See State v. Eckel, 185 N.J. 523. Exigency has been defined as circumstances which provide the officer with the heightened concern for his safety or the destruction of evidence. Id. at 534. The U.S Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Missouri v.…
Read MoreExigency and Warrantless Search | State of New Jersey vs. Witt
Submitted by New Jersey Criminal Lawyer, Jeffrey Hark One of the requirements for conducting a warrantless search is exigency, or to use another word, urgency. The leading case concerning exigency is State v. Pena-Flores in which the Jersey Supreme Court claimed that it was just reaffirming three decades of New Jersey common law which all…
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