Criminal Defense Law Blog

NJ Supreme Court Endorses the Reopening of Thousands of Detention Hearings

One of the great tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the thousands of New Jersey pretrial detainees who – despite being presumed innocent and not having been convicted of any crime – are languishing in unsafe conditions in county jails while courts remain closed to jury trials. On February 11, 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court endorsed the reopening of thousands of detention hearings by inmates detained for longer than six months, citing the “due process concerns” caused by the unexpectedly lengthy suspension of criminal trials in New Jersey.

By Andrew Olesnycky, Esq.|2024-08-18T14:28:36-04:00February 16th, 2021|Categories: NJ Superior Courts|0 Comments

President Biden Is Phasing Out Private Prisons for Federal Inmates

President Biden just signed an Executive Order to phase out the federal government’s use of private prisons. For-profit, private prison systems have been found to provide less humane and less safe environments overall, in an effort to increase profits. While signing the Order, the President stated that “[t]his is the first step to stop corporations from profiting off incarceration, that is less humane and less safe, as studies show . . . [a]nd this is just the beginning of my administration’s plan to address systematic problems in our criminal justice system.”

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-09-02T21:06:01-04:00January 27th, 2021|Categories: Federal Courts, Prison|0 Comments

New Jersey’s Use of Force Policy to Change for the Better

Gurbir Grewal, the New Jersey State Attorney General, recently announced a new policy that will affect the State’s more than 38,000 police officers beginning on December 31, 2021. The change comes after two years of study into racial disparities and other issues involving the use of force in New Jersey. The new rules, which will limit the use of force, ban using police dogs on suspects who are simply resisting arrest and require departments to review every incident where force was used, are focused on protecting the “sanctity of human life.”

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-08-18T14:00:23-04:00January 18th, 2021|Categories: Police|0 Comments

Department of Justice’s Focus on Telemedicine Fraud

With Covid-19 still surging throughout the United States, telemedicine has expanded as a viable option for patients seeking to limit their exposure to doctors’ offices. To meet this need, Federal and State regulators have both implemented and increased a number of measures allowing telemedicine to reach more people, as well as cover more areas of practice.

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-08-18T17:25:36-04:00November 11th, 2020|Categories: Healthcare Fraud|Tags: Fraud|0 Comments

Virtual Grand Jury and Virtual Trial During the Pandemic

Around the country, a number of state and federal courts have started to use virtual grand juries to indict, and virtual juries for actual trials. If you are concerned that jurors involved in virtual processes may not represent a true cross section of the population, or that virtual hearings are inherently unfair, you are not alone.

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-08-21T12:10:35-04:00October 29th, 2020|Categories: Criminal Trial, Grand Jury Investigation|0 Comments

Federal Bail and Pretrial Detention

It may come as a surprise to most, including many criminal defense attorneys, that the federal system detains a greater percentage of people arrested than state systems. Since the Bail Reform Act (BRA), enacted in 1984, pretrial detention has significantly increased from 19% in 1985 to 75% in 2019, which is particularly astounding, considering violent crime accounts for only 2% of federal arrests.

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-08-20T18:44:52-04:00September 23rd, 2020|Categories: Domestic Violence, Drug Crimes/Trafficking, Pre-Trial Procedures|Tags: Federal Crimes|0 Comments

NJ Supreme Court Compels Defendant to Provide Cellphone Password

In an extremely controversial 4-3 opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld trial and Appellate Division rulings compelling a defendant to provide his cellphone passcode pursuant to a search warrant. The defendant was an Essex County Sheriff’s Officer accused of providing a drug dealer confidential information about an investigation into the dealer and his co-conspirators.

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-08-20T10:21:41-04:00August 10th, 2020|Categories: Criminal Investigation, NJ Superior Courts, Search Warrants|Tags: Investigation|0 Comments

Government Wiretaps Versus Your End-to-End Encryption

A new, just released report shows the number of federal and state-authorized wiretaps conducted in 2019. A wiretap is a court-authorized warrant, allowing law enforcement to listen to and record conversations and/or text messages on a target’s phone. In most jurisdictions, the law enforcement agency applying for such an order must demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that the target is engaged in a specified unlawful activity, that he uses the particular phone to conduct his illegal activity, that traditional methods of investigation have been tried or would not likely be successful, and that the wiretap is necessary to uncover the full extent of the target’s criminal activity, and/or the other coconspirators’.

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-09-03T16:08:05-04:00July 1st, 2020|Categories: Criminal Discovery, Criminal Investigation|0 Comments

Department of Justice Prosecutions of COVID-19 PPE Fraud

As discussed in a prior post, the Department of Justice has formed a nationwide task force comprised of AUSAs from each of the 93 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, as well as Main Justice. Together they total more than 100 federal prosecutors, to investigate and prosecute fraud related to the ongoing pandemic. The District of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito spearheads this effort.

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-08-22T20:58:02-04:00June 25th, 2020|Categories: Healthcare Fraud, White Collar Criminal Defense|Tags: Criminal Investigation, Fraud|0 Comments

Paycheck Protection Program Investigations

If you are a small business that was lucky enough to find a bank willing to accept and fund your small business Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) application, then a small portion of the $670 billion program went to an intended beneficiary. Unfortunately, many small businesses quickly learned larger banks were unwillingly to process their applications. News reports revealed banks received $10 billion in fees for the first traunch of funds dispersed, for which they received a set processing fee of 1-5% based on the size of the loan. A lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against several major banks alleges they moved larger borrowers to the front of the line, ahead of many deserving smaller businesses in order to maximize on origination fees. Some corporations received tens of millions of dollars from the federal small business lending program, which initially ran out of money on April 16. Although the program has been funded once more, applicants are under much greater scrutiny.

By Robert G. Stahl, Esq.|2024-08-12T11:53:13-04:00May 4th, 2020|Categories: Criminal Investigation, White Collar Criminal Defense|Tags: Fraud|0 Comments