New Brunswick Criminal Restraint Attorney

Reviewed by William A. Proetta, Esq. · Updated October 2026

Criminal restraint, N.J.S.A. 2C:13-2, is a third-degree crime: knowingly holding someone unlawfully in a way that exposes them to a risk of serious bodily injury, or keeping someone in involuntary servitude. A conviction carries a range of 3 to 5 years in state prison and a fine of up to $15,000, although a first offender starts with a presumption against prison.

Being a crime rather than a disorderly persons offense, a restraint complaint written by Woodbridge, Edison or Sayreville police does not stay in that town’s municipal court. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office reviews it, and if it is indicted it is heard in the Superior Court on Paterson Street in New Brunswick. We handle these cases from Edison, and my own work in New Jersey criminal courts now spans more than 15 years. Restraint sits in the middle of a three-step ladder, above false imprisonment and below kidnapping, and much of the defense work consists of moving the case down that ladder.

The Two Ways to Commit Criminal Restraint

The statute is unchanged since 1979, and every word carries weight.

Subsection (a): restraint plus danger. The State must show that the accused (1) restrained another person, (2) did so unlawfully, (3) acted knowingly, and (4) did it “in circumstances exposing the other to risk of serious bodily injury.” Restraint means restricting a person’s freedom to move or leave: holding a door shut, pinning someone down, refusing to stop a moving car, taking the keys and phone so the person cannot leave a remote spot.

Subsection (b): involuntary servitude. The State must show the accused knowingly held another person in a condition of involuntary servitude. These cases look more like labor exploitation than a single violent night: a worker kept in a house, without documents or money, told they cannot leave.

What “risk of serious bodily injury” means. Serious bodily injury is defined in N.J.S.A. 2C:11-1(b) as injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ. Subsection (a) does not require that any injury happened. It asks whether the circumstances of the restraint created a real risk of that level of harm. Holding someone in a closed room during an argument is very different from holding a person near an open stairwell, in a speeding car, or with a weapon in reach. Our guide to bodily injury versus serious bodily injury explains the definitions in more depth.

“Knowingly.” The accused must have been aware that they were restraining the person, and aware of the circumstances that made it dangerous. Accidentally blocking a hallway does not qualify.

The family defense. For subsection (b), the statute provides an affirmative defense when the person held was under 18, the accused was a relative or legal guardian, and the accused’s only purpose was to take control of the child.

Where Restraint Fits Among Related Charges

The difference between restraint and kidnapping is purpose, distance and duration; restraint needs none of them. The difference between restraint and false imprisonment is the danger element alone. Under N.J.S.A. 2C:1-8, an offense that differs only by a less serious risk of injury is an included offense, so a jury can be told to consider false imprisonment if the evidence gives a rational basis for it.

What a Conviction Does, and Does Not, Bring

• Prison. Someone never before convicted of any offense starts with the non-imprisonment presumption of N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(e). That presumption falls away if the court finds aggravating factor (14), domestic violence in the presence of a child under 16, or factor (15), domestic violence on more than one occasion; either finding instead creates a presumption of imprisonment under 2C:44-1(d)(1).
• NERA. Does not apply. Criminal restraint is not on the No Early Release Act list and is a third-degree crime in any event.
• Megan’s Law. Required if the person restrained was a minor and the defendant is not the child’s parent, under N.J.S.A. 2C:7-2(b)(2). In that situation the abuse-victim mitigating factor in 2C:44-1(b)(15) is also unavailable, because it excludes registrable offenses.
• Expungement. Barred for restraint of a minor by a non-parent. Any other restraint conviction can be cleared five years after the sentence is complete, or four with compelling circumstances. See our Middlesex expungement page.
• Restraining orders and guns. Restraint is a domestic violence predicate act. Police responding to a domestic call must seize weapons they reasonably believe would expose the complaining witness to a risk of serious bodily injury, along with any firearms ID card or permit. After a conviction for a crime involving domestic violence, later possession of a firearm is a second-degree crime under N.J.S.A. 2C:39-7(b)(1), with a five-year parole bar.
• Immigration. Consequences depend on the facts admitted and the person’s status, and no source we can cite settles how this offense is classified. A non-citizen should have immigration counsel review any plea.

Criminal Restraint Cases in Middlesex County

How the charge shows up. Restraint is rarely the only count. In a domestic case it usually rides with simple or aggravated assault after a call from an apartment or townhouse in Edison, Woodbridge or Piscataway: one partner says the other blocked the door, took the car keys and held them down. In a robbery or burglary it is added when someone was tied up or kept in a room.

Summons or warrant. A summons is possible on a criminal restraint complaint. When the complaint involves domestic violence, though, the charge falls within a listed category for a prosecutor’s detention motion, N.J.S.A. 2A:162-19(a)(6), and an arrested person waits in the county jail in North Brunswick for a first appearance. Release conditions almost always bar contact and keep the accused out of the shared home.

The Family Part track. A dating partner, spouse or household member can seek a temporary restraining order that night, followed by a final hearing at the Family Courthouse, 120 New Street, New Brunswick. That hearing comes well before the criminal case is resolved, and testimony there is under oath, so we plan for both proceedings at once.

Grand jury, remand or downgrade. After screening at the Prosecutor’s Office on Kirkpatrick Street, the case can go three ways. The MCPO can present it to a grand jury in New Brunswick. It can decline the indictable count and send a disorderly persons charge, typically false imprisonment or simple assault, back to the municipal court where it began, such as Woodbridge Municipal Court at 1 Main Street; a municipal court cannot dispose of an indictable charge without the county prosecutor’s consent on the record. Or it can offer a plea or diversion in Superior Court. Our Woodbridge criminal defense page describes that local court.

Pretrial Intervention for Criminal Restraint

PTI is available in principle. Because restraint is third degree and carries no presumption of imprisonment, a first offender can apply through the Middlesex Criminal Division without first needing the prosecutor’s consent; the application is due before the first case disposition conference after arraignment. Domestic cases are harder: a charge involving violence or the threat of it carries a presumption against admission that requires extraordinary and compelling circumstances to overcome, and any third- or fourth-degree domestic violence charge requires a guilty plea to enter. Our page on PTI in Middlesex County covers the application.

Defending a Criminal Restraint Charge

• No real risk of serious injury. This is the element most often overcharged. An argument behind a closed door, however unpleasant, is not the same as danger of death or permanent harm, and without that element the case is at most false imprisonment.
• No restraint. Standing in a doorway while talking, or walking away with shared car keys, may not have substantially limited where the other person could go. Other exits, unlocked doors and a phone within reach all matter.
• Lawful purpose. Holding someone back from driving drunk or from attacking a third person can be justified force under N.J.S.A. 2C:3-4 and 2C:3-5. See our page on self-defense and justification.
• Knowledge. The State must prove awareness of the dangerous circumstances, not just of the restraint.
• Account changes. We compare the 911 audio, body-worn camera footage, the restraining order application and any statements to medical staff.
• The servitude defense. For a parent, relative or guardian of a child under 18 whose sole purpose was to take control of that child, the statute supplies an affirmative defense to subsection (b).

Speak With a Middlesex County Criminal Restraint Lawyer

Keep away from the complaining witness, follow every release condition, and say nothing to detectives until you have advice. Reach our Edison office at (732) 659-9600 around the clock, or send us a message.