Court's Refusal to Dismiss Indictment Against Whistleblower Poses Thorny Legal Questions

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s criminal docket was particularly full this year. Five cases involved the vacation of guilty pleas, and a disproportionate number involved jury charges claimed to be defective, and sentencing issues. The court also decided cases involving PTI, search and seizure, DWI, confessions, the effect of cumulative errors, petitions for post-conviction relief, fresh complaint evidence, bias crimes, appellate procedure, robbery, resisting arrest, expungements, and the substitution of jurors during deliberations.

Three interesting cases of first impression were also on the court’s docket and are discussed below. One involves the criminal prosecution of a whistleblower for the theft of documents from her place of employment. State v. Saavedra, 222 N.J. 39 (2015). Another involves whether school chaperones alleged to have committed sexual offenses against minors while abroad are subject to prosecution in New Jersey. State v. Sumulikoski, 221 N.J. 93 (2015). The third involves whether a defendant accused of threatening two Bergen County judges was entitled to the recusal of the entire Bergen County judiciary. State v. Dalal, 221 N.J. 601 (2015).

Prosecution of Whistleblowers