May 22, 2008

Hot Topics in Municipal Court Practice- Forms available

NJSBA Annual Meeting
Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort

Hot Topics in Municipal Court Practice
Thursday, May 22 2008 

8am - 9:30 am Diamond A

Could not attend? Need forms?
Send email to Kenvnjlaws@verizon.net and advise which form you would like. The form will be sent to you within 2 days, or fax us your email address 732-572-0030 fax

Name ___________________

Email ___________________
An overview of the top 25 municipal court cases of the year and interactive discussion of the most current topics in municipal court.
Speakers: 
Paris P. Eliades, Esq. 
Daggett Kraemer Eliades Kovach & Ursin, Sparta
Kenneth A. Vercammen, Esq.

Kenneth Vercammen & Associates,
Edison
Past Chair Municipal Court Section
2005 NJSBA Municipal Court Attorney
of the Year
Editor- NJ Municipal Court Law Review

CD with forms and Materials
provided to all attendees!
02 Lt of rep only.doc
02 DISC.doc
02a DISC to DMV.doc
02d Disc_Complainant.doc
03D Retainer-MUN COURT.doc
04 Hearing notice.doc
100 Cross Exam Q-DWI.doc
AG Guidelines binding.doc
Appeal Fee Bill to Client.doc
atty_guidelines_0505.pdf
Bail reduce Mt.doc
Brief post convict vacate plea.doc
Conditional Discharge Pet Cl.doc
constructive poss.doc
Court cannot handle discovery.doc
Crim interview aba.doc
crim- Specific defenses.doc
Defense Affidavit to Client.doc
DISC to Client from Prosecutor.doc
DUI Motions non disc- jury.doc
DWI- Blood defense brief.doc
DWI- expert letter.doc
DWS Fine reduced parking ticket.doc
Expungement recommend.doc
MIRANDA br.doc
More disc br.doc
Mt for Civil Reservation.doc
Mt forSlap.doc
Mt to be Relieved.doc
Mt- Dismiss No disc mun Pros.doc
Mun Ct Interview.doc
MVC_ DMV - Follow-up Hearing.doc
MVC_ DMV points for Atom.doc
No discovery dismiss Brief.doc
No Show in Court.doc
OBJ TO LAB CERT.doc
OPRA Brief Crim.doc
Order mark try or dismiss.doc
Order to be Relieved.doc
Pros- missing abstract.doc
Refusal Brief wrong statement.doc
Storm Cert priv pros.doc
Sup-Miranda.doc
SUPPRESSION MT.doc
SUPPRESSION BRIEF.doc
Chun discovery brief
www.BeNotGuilty.com

Can’t attend? Need forms?
Send email to Kenvnjlaws@verizon.net and the materials will be sent to you within 2 days, or fax us your email address 732-572-0030 fax

Name ___________________

Email ___________________

State v. Mylee Cottle

5-6-08 (A-111-06) State v. Mylee Cottle

An attorney has a per se conflict of interest when both the
attorney and the client are simultaneously under indictment in
the same county and are being prosecuted by the same
prosecutor’s office. Without an informed waiver made in court
and on the record, prejudice will be presumed, rendering the
representation ineffective. The undisclosed conflict in this
case denied the juvenile the effective representation of counsel
guaranteed to him under Article I, Paragraph 10 of the New
Jersey Constitution and he is entitled to a new trial.

State v. Michael Lisa

State v. Michael Lisa 4-22-08 (A-12-07)

The grand jury instructions incorporating duty principles from
the Restatement of Torts suffered from a fatal flaw that could
have been the substantial motivation for the return of the
reckless manslaughter charge, and dismissal was the only correct
course of action under the circumstances.

State v. Shirley Reid

4-21-08 State v. Shirley Reid (A-105-06)

Pursuant to Article I, Paragraph 7, of the New Jersey
Constitution, the Court holds that citizens have a reasonable
expectation of privacy in the subscriber information they
provide to Internet service providers. Accordingly, the motion
to suppress by defendant Reid was properly granted because the
police used a deficient municipal subpoena. Law enforcement
officials can obtain subscriber information by serving a grand
jury subpoena on an Internet service provider without notice to
the subscriber. The State may seek to reacquire the information
with a proper grand jury subpoena because records of the
information existed independently of the faulty process used by
the police, and the conduct of the police did not affect the
information.

Posted by Ken Vercammen

State v. Carlos Feal (A-16-07)

State v. Carlos Feal (A-16-07)
4-8-08

The holding of Daniels should be given pipeline retroactivity
but, in this case, the Daniels violation does not warrant
reversal of Feal’s convictions.

State of New Jersey v. Sky Atwater, a/k/a Tyrone

5-21-08 State of New Jersey v. Sky Atwater, a/k/a Tyrone
Johnson
A-3771-04T4

1. Where the jury's repeated questions indicated
confusion about the requisite mental state for vehicular
homicide, it was not sufficient for the trial court to re-charge
the jury on recklessness. Rather, the trial court should have
compared recklessness with negligence, in light of the jury's
questions. Denial of defendant's request to charge negligence in
response to the jury's questions was reversible error.

2. It was reversible error for the trial court to
preclude a defendant from cross-examining the State's expert on
the coefficient of friction, a factor the expert testified was
critical in formulating his opinion on the speed of defendant's
vehicle at the time of the accident.

3. The trial court committed plain error when it failed
to strike and give a curative instruction for the prosecutor's
repeated remarks that overstepped the bounds of propriety and
deprived defendant of a fair trial.

4. The trial court's denial of defendant's application to
argue negligence in summation under the circumstances of this
case contributed to cumulative error.

5. In a vehicular homicide case where there is evidence
that defendant may have been impaired by the use of alcohol, but
no evidence that he was driving while intoxicated (DWI) under
the statutory standard of N.J.S.A. 39:4-50, the trial court
should instruct the jury on the blood al(BAC) required for a per se DWI.

State of New Jersey v. Philip J. Castagna

State of New Jersey v. Philip J. Castagna 05-12-08
A-4402-06T5

In trial of former police chief for arson and conspiracy to
murder his wife, fact that the wife obtained a domestic violence
temporary restraining order against defendant resulting in his
suspension from office deemed admissible under Rule 404(b) on
State's theory of motive. Similarly, charges later filed by
wife of violation of the TRO and terroristic threats, resulting
in conviction on disorderly persons charges and forfeiture of
defendant's office, also held admissible as to motive. Jury to
receive limiting instructions including an instruction that
defendant's conviction on disorderly persons charges was
reversed after defendant's indictment on arson and conspiracy charges.

Expungement Petition of Robert Ross

In the Matter of the Expungement Petition of Robert Ross
A-0990-07T4
05-06-08

The expungement statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2, permits
expungement of an indictable conviction only if the petitioner
"has not been convicted of any prior or subsequent crime." We
construed the statute and held that if a petitioner commits two
crimes at different times, he is precluded from seeking
expungement even if he is sentenced and convicted for the two crimes on the same day.

State of New Jersey vs. William Schadewald

05-05-08* State of New Jersey vs. William Schadewald
A-1191-06T5

1. A defendant convicted of a second or subsequent
offense of driving while intoxicated (DWI), N.J.S.A. 39:4-50,
who seeks a step-down in sentence on the ground that one or more
of the prior convictions were uncounseled, pursuant to State v.
Laurick, 120 N.J. 1, cert. denied, 498 U.S. 967, 111 S. Ct. 429,
112 L. Ed. 2d 413 (1990), must first petition for post-
conviction relief (PCR) in the municipal court in which the
prior uncounseled conviction occurred.

2. The PCR proceeRule 7:10-2(f) and (g).

May 21, 2008

Hawthorne PBA Local 200 v. Borough of Hawthorne

04-29-08 Hawthorne PBA Local 200 v. Borough of Hawthorne, et al.
A-4504-06T2

The issue in this appeal is whether, in a mayor-council
form of government under the Faulkner Act, the appointment and
promotion of police officers may be delegated by the Borough
Council to the mayor, whom the council has designated as the
"appropriate authority" pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:14-118, a
general law that addresses the creation and internal structure
of municipal police departments. The Law Division dismissed the
plaintiff's challenge to the ordinance delegating that authority
to the mayor, and we affirmed.

Janon Fisher v. Division of Law

04-28-08 Janon Fisher v. Division of Law
A-2288-06T3; A-2448-06T3

The Division of Law properly calculated the "special
service charge" for responding to a request under the Open
Public Records Act for production of e-mails and computer files
prepared by assistant and deputy attorneys general based on the
time expended by those attorneys in retrieving and reviewing the
requested government records to identify privileged materials.
Where certifications that the Division of Law filed with the
Government Records Council clearly indicate that the redacted
material in documents produced in response to an OPRA request is
privileged, there is no need for a remand for the purpose of
requiring the Division to submit a more specific Vaughn index.

State of New Jersey v. Brandon Krause

04-17-08 State of New Jersey v. Brandon Krause
A-3737-06T5

Based on defendant's failure to meet his burden of proving
facts that would establish that the Hackettstown noise ordinance
was preempted by the Noise Control Act of 1971, N.J.S.A. 13:1G-1
to -23, the ordinance was held valid and the conviction
affirmed. However, the opinion noted that local noise
ordinances may require DEP approval to be enforceable at least
with respect to certain facilities, such as commercial and
industrial sites.

State of New Jersey v. James Robinson

04-15-08 State of New Jersey v. James Robinson
A-6381-05T4

In this appeal, we reverse the trial court's denial of
defendant's motion to suppress evidence found in his dwelling.
Our decision is grounded exclusively under the rights conferred
in Article I, paragraph 7 of the Constitution of the State of
New Jersey.

In executing a knock-and-announce warrant, the police must
give the occupants of the dwelling a reasonable opportunity to
respond before resorting to the use of force to gain entry to
the residence. Here, the police broke down the entrance door of
the dwelling, twenty to thirty seconds after announcing their
presence, thus converting the knock-and-announce warrant into a
de facto no-knock warrant. Furthermore, the use of a so-called
flash bang explosive device by the police was factually
unwarranted, and rendered a nullity the warranannounce condition imposed by the court.

State of New Jersey v. Forrest M. Baker, Sr.

04-14-08 State of New Jersey v. Forrest M. Baker, Sr.
A-6018-05T4

Defendant, a federal inmate at the Fort Dix Correctional
Facility in Wrightstown, was produced for pre-trial appearances
and for trial in the Law Division by way of the judge's "order
to produce." We concluded that defendant's pre-trial motion to
dismiss the indictment pursuant to the "anti-shuttling"
provision of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD),
N.J.S.A. 2A:159A-4, was properly denied. Because a writ of
habeas corpus ad prosequendum is not a detainer for IAD
purposes, the statute was not triggered and the motion was
properly denied.

State of New Jersey v. Brenda Hoffman

03-31-08 State of New Jersey v. Brenda Hoffman
A-6473-06T4

In this appeal, we reverse an order admitting defendant
into a Pretrial Intervention program over the prosecutor's
objection. We conclude the victims' status as police officers
does not eviscerate N.J.S.A. 2C:43-12(e)(4), which requires
prosecutors to consider "[t]he desire of the complainant or
victim to forego prosecution."

Edward Kahler sworn as Cranbury Chief of Police effective June 1, 2008

Photo Featured: New Chief Ed Kahler, Lt. Rick Varga; Chief Jay Hansen; Past Prosecutor Kenneth Vercammen

http://www.njlaws.com/cranpolicestation.htm

May 10, 2008

Hot Topics in Municipal Court Practice Thursday, May 22 (8 - 9:30 a.m.)

Hot Topics in Municipal Court Practice Thursday, May 22 (8 - 9:30 a.m.)
NJSBA Annual Meeting and Convention.

NJSBA Annual Meeting and Convention Annual Meeting and Convention 2008 Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City May 21 - 23. The NJ State Bar Association will hold its 2008 Annual Meeting and Convention at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, right on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. A favorite location for the NJSBA's annual conference, the boardwalk offers the Atlantic City seaside right outside the doors of the resort. Attend from May 21-22 for education, top speakers and networking with the top legal professionals in the state and your fellow NJSBA members.

Hot Topics in Municipal Court Practice Thursday, May 22 (8 - 9:30 a.m.)
Municipal Court Practice Section NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education (Municipal Court Practice Track)

Trial Attorney Certification: 1.5 criminal credits pending
NY CLE (Transitional & Non-transitional): 1.5 professional practice credits
PA CLE: 1.5 substantive credits pending ($8 fee payable to ICLE)
An overview of the top 25 municipal court cases of the year and interactive discussion of the most current topics in municipal court.

Speakers: Paris P. Eliades, Esq. - Daggett Kraemer Eliades Kovach & Ursin, Sparta
Kenneth A. Vercammen, Esq. - Kenneth Vercammen & Associates, Edison

http://www.njsba.com/calendar_events/index.cfm?fuseaction=annual_mtg#207

Alcotest Update - State v. Chun
Municipal Court Practice Section NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education (Municipal Court Practice Track)

Thursday, May 22 (1 - 2:30 p.m.)

Trial Attorney Certification: 1.5 criminal credits pending
NY CLE (Non-transitional): 1.5 professional practice credits
PA CLE: 1.5 substantive credits pending ($8 fee payable to ICLE)

An analysis of the recent Chun discussion and the documentation required in order to admit the Alcotest 7110 into evidence.

Speaker: Jeffrey E. Gold, Esq. Vice Chair, Municipal Court Practice Section Gold & Farrow, PC, Cherry Hill
KENNETH VERCAMMEN ATTORNEY AT LAW

Free Will or Power of Attorney for Middlesex County Police Officers

Free Will or Power of Attorney for Middlesex County Police Officers

To recognize national Police Week, we will, we will provide a free confidential Last Will and Testament or Power of Attorney to Police who serve in the Middlesex County area. I appreciate the service provided by police and want to say thank you to the persons who protect my family.


IF YOU HAVE NO WILL (LEGALLY REFERRED TO AS "INTESTATE SECESSION"):
* State law determines who gets assets, not you
* Additional expenses will be incurred by your heirs and extra work will be required by the heirs of their attorney to qualify an administrator
* The Judge determines who gets custody of minor children
* If you have no spouse or relatives, the State may take your property
* The procedure to distribute assets becomes more complicated-and the law makes no exceptions for persons in unusual need or for your own wishes.
* It may also cause fights and lawsuits within your family
This also applies if your Will is declared invalid because it was improperly prepared or is not admissible to probate. In the absence of a Will or other legal arrangement to distribute property at death, there is usually a requirement of an expensive bond and additional work to qualify an administrator. This process is called the law of intestacy.
Call 732-572-0500 to schedule a confidential appointment
KENNETH VERCAMMEN & ASSOCIATES, PC
ATTORNEY AT LAW
2053 Woodbridge Ave.
Edison, NJ 08817
732-572-0500
website: www.njlaws.com
To receive the njlaws Free Legal newsletter via computer email, visit our website at www.njlaws.com, email at KenVnjlaws@verizon.net or fax us your email address
(Fax) 732-572-0030.

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