Over a year ago Mr. Oliver, an associate in my office met with a new client who was charged with Robbery in the second degree. The defendant was a nineteen years old male, with no prior record and swore to me and my staff that he had nothing to do with this alleged robbery. Based on this information, Mr. Oliver sent a private investigator to the defendant’s home to take personal statements from the six eye witness who stated that the defendant never left his home on the night in question. Mr. Oliver then provided these statements to the prosecution in an attempt to resolve this matter. However, with the prosecution still feeling that there was enough evidence to indict the defendant, they presented this matter to the grand jury. Not surprisingly, the grand jury returned an indictment, charging the defendant with one count of Robbery, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:15-2 and one count Conspiracy to Commit Robbery, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:15-2 and N.J.S.A. 2C:5-2. If the defendant was convicted of these charges he would face anywhere between five – ten years in a New Jersey State Prison. In addition, he must serve at least 85% of his sentence before he could be eligible for parole pursuant to the No Early Release Act.
Still denying any involvement with the robbery, the defendant was ready to take this matter to trial. Through countless negotiations, negotiations that lasted over eight months, Mr. Oliver was able to create enough inconsistencies in the police officers investigation that the prosecution agreed to allow the defendant to submit to a polygraph examination. Traditional, polygraph examinations are inadmissible in court, however, both parties can stipulate that the polygraph examination would be admissible. The final negotiated polygraph examination stipulation called for ALL charges associated with incident to be dismissed upon the defendant successfully completing the examination. Fortunately for the defendant, over one year after being charged with robbery, all charges against the defendant were dismissed. My office has since filed for an expungement of the defendant’s arrest and in a couple short months he will have his record completely cleared. This just goes to show that unfortunately there are plenty of innocent people in the world being charged with very serious crimes. With that being said, this is where an experienced criminal defense firm can make a difference.