Yesterday one of my attorneys, Keith G. Oliver represented a juvenile who was charged with one count of robbery, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1, one count of possession of a controlled dangerous substance, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:35-10, one count of possession of a controlled dangerous substance with the intent to distribute, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:35-5 and one count of possession of a controlled dangerous substance with the intent to distribute in a school zone, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:25-7. If the defendant was convicted of all of the aforementioned charges the defendant would face up to nine years in Juvenile Jamesburg Detention Center. Using some cutting-edge defense tactics, our team was able to uncover evidence on Facebook that allows our client a chance to walk away without a criminal record.
The victim in this matter alleged that not only was this an unprovoked attack but that it was also completely random and that he had never seen nor spoken too the alleged attackers. However, when my office met with the defendant he revealed a totally different story. According to the defendant, himself, his co-defendant and the victim all knew each other and in fact they have had prior “dealings”. In addition, the defendant asserts that on the day in question, the victim was supposed to be supplying the defendants with a certain quantity of marijuana. When confronted, the victim continued to deny knowing the defendants or that he was in fact distributing marijuana. At this point, my office, knowing we needed some solid proof that these two parties knew each other, turned to social media sites like Facebook to uncover valuable defense evidence.
Through this investigation Mr. Oliver was able to find numerous discussions on Facebook between the victim and the defendant about purchasing marijuana and where the arranged buys would occur. Confronted with this solid proof, the victim confessed, and in fact admitted that the individual who struck him on the day in questions was not our client. With this new information, Mr. Oliver was able to workout a plea agreement where in which the defendant would plead guilty to a petty disorderly persons harassment charge, with a back-end dismissal. This is more commonly referred to as a deferred disposition, which basically means that if the defendant completes the six month probationary term without issue, all charges will be outright dismissed. The defendant is set to walk away from these extremely serious drug charges without a criminal record.