College Student Gets PTI for Aggravated Assault on Police After Originally Denied

Our Union County criminal attorneys recently defended a young man who had been arrested in Rahway after police reported to the scene to investigate reports of an individual going into people’s backyards and damaging property. Once in the area they encountered a man they believed met the description and tried to stop him in order to investigate further. However, according to police reports, the man began to flee from the police but then stopped and turned around and came toward the police officer and suddenly pushed him away and began to run away. The police began a foot chase and were eventually able to catch up to him and tackle him to the ground. But even after being tackled to the ground he still struggled and would not put his hands behind his back.

If it all stopped here then it is very possible that our client could have gotten away with maybe only being charged with a resisting arrest. However, things continued to escalate when police tried escorting him into the police car and he kicked an officer in the left knee. To stop him from continuing to kick and possibly injure himself or another police officer, they handcuffed his feet together and again tried putting him into the back of the police car but this time he bit another officer in the thigh. Once back at the police department he was secured in a cell and the situation appeared to be finally calming down, however, when another officer walked into the cell to check on the defendant he threatened to take his gun and shoot him in the face and sexually assault his wife. Based on the allegations, our client was charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats, resisting arrest and criminal mischief.

When our client and his family came to us with the circumstances of what had happened we were first taken back by the seriousness of the allegations, just like most people would be, but after learning about our client and his past we began to understand how this may have happened. It turns out that our client was actually a bright young man who was attending a prestigious college in Massachusetts and that he suffered from bipolar disorder and a recent traumatic event had triggered him to go into a manic phase. In fact, according to him, he had very little memory of the events that unfolded that night altogether. However, the probation department was not as convinced as to his character and the circumstances of the crimes and denied his application for admission into Pre-Trial Intervention, which could have effectively resulted in a complete dismissal if he completed his conditions. To make matters worse, our client was not a U.S. citizen and a conviction would most definitely result in immigration consequences such as his removal from the United States. However, our criminal defense lawyers refused to give up and put together a packet detailing extenuating circumstances for the prosecutor’s office consideration that in the end, effectively resulted in the prosecutor “over-riding” the probation department and to place our client into PTI. In the end, our client was placed into PTI and he is set to have the charges dismissed in 12 months upon successful completion and will have no criminal record or immigration consequences.

State v. D.B. decided November 1, 2017