Criminal Justice
Grand jury clears cops in shooting that ended deadly anti-Semitic attack in Jersey City
A state grand jury has cleared 13 police officers who fatally shot the armed couple responsible for a 2019 killing spree at a kosher deli in Jersey City, the state Attorney General’s office announced Wednesday. David N. Anderson and Francine Graham gunned down a Jersey City detective at the Bayview Cemetery on Dec 10, 2019, […]
Bergen County Jail transfers last ICE detainees to facility 300 miles away
For the first time in 30 years, the Bergen County Jail no longer holds any detainees under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The last 15 detainees were transferred out Friday, a week before Bergen County had said they would clear the Hackensack facility of all detained immigrants. Advocates from Pax Christi and […]
Appellate court upholds public’s rights in police search warrant case
Even if police officers have a search warrant, they cannot use evidence obtained during the search if they violate a requirement that they first knock and announce themselves, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Wednesday. Such behavior violates the constitutional rights of citizens to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, and police shouldn’t “profit” […]
Advocates call for releases of migrants detained in Bergen County Jail
Jean Ismael Bien Aime Nicolas sits in the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, where he’s been held since 2018. Some time in the next few days, he’ll likely be transferred to a facility hundreds of miles away as the jail begins depopulating migrant detainees. The Haitian man said he expects his case will be reviewed […]
Activists troubled that N.J. cities sought DEA surveillance of 2020 protests
Activists are concerned about reports showing three New Jersey law enforcement agencies requested the federal government provide surveillance operations during Black Lives Matter protests last summer. The Asbury Park Police Department, Newark Police Department and Essex County Sheriff’s Office all reached out to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in hopes of collecting intelligence on “radical […]
Judge reprimanded for making sexual comments to woman defendant
A former judge who alluded to sexual acts while speaking to a woman defendant has been publicly reprimanded by the state’s highest court. Hector L. Rodriguez, a former Franklin Township judge, violated three tenets of state judicial ethics rules during a Dec. 5, 2017 hearing involving an unnamed woman who was charged with multiple drug offenses, […]
Community investment would protect public more than over-policing, report says
New Jersey communities spend far more on policing than on health and human services, an imbalance that has increased rates of police use of force and incarceration while widening racial disparities in the criminal justice system, according to a new report by New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP), a progressive think tank. Community-based crisis-response and prevention strategies […]
Activists demand lawmakers act to curb police brutality on ‘Long March for Justice’
Cecille Hepburn marched for her grandson, Kashad Ashford, who police gunned down in 2014 after a car chase. Steven Young marched for change, a year after he quit Atlantic City’s civilian review board, which is tasked with police oversight, in protest over its powerlessness. And Larry Hamm marched because marching is what Larry Hamm does. An […]
Report: N.J. Parole Board too often refuses to release inmates, needs oversight
The New Jersey State Parole Board routinely refuses to release parole-eligible inmates from prison, leaving many people languishing behind bars far longer than sentencing judges intended, the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender says in a recent report calling for more oversight. The 1979 Parole Act requires inmates to be paroled as soon as they’re […]
Acting A.G. takes aim at law criminalizing sexual activity by people with HIV
Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck told county prosecutors Wednesday they should exercise caution before using a decades-old state law that criminalizes certain sexual activity by people living with HIV. The 1997 law makes it a third-degree crime for someone living with HIV to engage in an “act of sexual penetration” without the informed […]
N.J.’s last publicly run ICE facility will no longer hold migrant detainees
After years of hunger strikes and fiery protests, Bergen County’s controversial, indefinite contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold undocumented immigrants at its jail has come to an end. Bergen County Commissioners approved the move at their Wednesday meeting, giving federal authorities 45 days to transfer the 23 remaining detainees — 22 men […]
ACLU fights restraining order Hudson County officials filed against anti-ICE protestors
The temporary restraining order a Hudson County official filed against a group of anti-ICE activists who protested outside his Jersey City home violates the constitutional rights of protestors, the American Civil Liberties Union’s New Jersey chapter said in a brief filed Friday. The ACLU-NJ argues the restraining order should be dissolved because it limits the […]