14-2-5267 State v. Cagno , App. Div. (Stern, P.J.A.D.) (74 pp.) A RICO conspiracy must continue to within five years of the indictment, but there is a presumption that the conspiracy continues when a member of an organized-crime family is involved, and the state does not have to prove that an overt act occurred within the five-year period. In any event, in this case a family member’s refusal to testify over a grant of immunity and signal of “thumbs up” to defendant as he left the courtroom at defendant’s first trial can be considered overt acts in a superseding indictment. [Decided Sept. 10, 2009.]
26-2-5227 County of Warren v. State of New Jersey , App. Div. (Waugh, J.A.D.) (26 pp.) This opinion upholds the validity of the master plan adopted by the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council against an argument that the council lost its authority to adopt the plan by failing to do so within the time set forth in N.J.S.A. 13:20-8. It also rejects constitutional challenges to the Highlands Act based on equal protection arguments, some of which were premised on a purported constitutional right to farm. The act had already been upheld on due process grounds in OFP, L.L.C. v. State , 395 N.J. Super. 571 (App. Div. 2007), aff’d o.b., 197 N.J. 418 (2008). [Decided Sept. 4, 2009.]
