2C:33-4 Harassment -Petty Disorderly person

2C:33-4   Harassment 

-Petty Disorderly person- 30 days jail   maximum

Petty DP $500 max Fine, VCCB and other penalties

And criminal conviction on your record

Except as provided in subsection e., a person commits a petty disorderly persons offense if, with purpose to harass another, he:

a.Makes, or causes to be made, a communication or communications anonymously or at extremely inconvenient hours, or in offensively coarse language, or any other manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm;

b.Subjects another to striking, kicking, shoving, or other offensive touching, or threatens to do so; or

c.Engages in any other course of alarming conduct or of repeatedly committed acts with purpose to alarm or seriously annoy such other person.

A communication under subsection a. may be deemed to have been made either at the place where it originated or at the place where it was received.

d.(Deleted by amendment, P.L.2001, c.443).

e.A person commits a crime of the fourth degree if, in committing an offense under this section, he was serving a term of imprisonment or was on parole or probation as the result of a conviction of any indictable offense under the laws of this State, any other state or the United States.

 Sometimes an experienced attorney can negotiate with the prosecutor to have the charges reduced to a Municipal Ordinance. Other times for first offenders we can make a motion for the first offenders program, Conditional dismissal. 

New law finally establishes a Conditional Dismissal Program in Municipal Court.Ken Vercammen testified in favor of the passage before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

The Conditional Dismissal program in Municipal Court for certain first-time offenders permits defense counsel to make a Motion that the charge would be dismissed at the end of a one year probationary period.

“This initiative will give a broader range of first-time offenders who have committed a minor offense an opportunity to turn their lives around,”  “The program will help foster participants’ rehabilitation and future success by giving them appropriate penalties without having the offense be a part of their permanent criminal record.” This law also helps Police and Prosecutors since it requires a guilty plea, thus reducing the need for trials and officer testimony.

The law allows future Dismissal for many non-drug offenses, such as disorderly person’s offenses, which have not been able to participate in similar programs before.

“First-time offenders who are screened to meet the eligibility requirements will be able to use the program to avoid having a record that cannot be expunged until years after the sentence is served 

KENNETH VERCAMMEN & ASSOCIATES, PC

ATTORNEY AT LAW

2053 Woodbridge Ave.

Edison, NJ 08817

(Phone) 732-572-0500