Criminal Sexual Contact Attorney in New Brunswick, NJ

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

In New Jersey, N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3(b) makes criminal sexual contact a 4th-degree crime, punishable by as much as 18 months of imprisonment and a $10,000 fine, though a first offender is presumed not to go to prison. Aggravated criminal sexual contact under N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3(a) is a 3rd-degree crime carrying 3 to 5 years, with Megan’s Law registration, Parole Supervision for Life and an Avenel evaluation whatever the complaining witness’s age, while the 4th-degree charge is registrable only when the complaining witness was under 18.

Both grades are indictable crimes, not municipal court offenses. A complaint from New Brunswick, Edison, Piscataway, Sayreville or any other Middlesex County town is screened by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office in New Brunswick and, if indicted, heard in the Superior Court Criminal Division at 56 Paterson Street. William Proetta Criminal Law represents people charged throughout the county from our Edison office. I have more than 15 years of criminal trial experience, and on this charge the early choices, especially whether to speak with a detective, often decide whether the case ends with a sex offense label at all.

What Counts as Criminal Sexual Contact

Every version of the charge starts with sexual contact as N.J.S.A. 2C:14-1 defines it: an intentional touching of intimate parts, by either person, directly or through clothing, done to degrade or humiliate the complaining witness or to sexually arouse or gratify the accused. Touching yourself counts only when done in view of someone you know is present.

Intimate parts are a closed list: sexual organs, genital area, anal area, inner thigh, groin, buttock and breast. A hand on someone’s back, arm, waist or knee may be unwelcome and may support another charge, but it is not sexual contact.

There is no penetration in either offense. If the State alleges penetration, the case belongs under the sexual assault statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:14-2.

The 4th-degree offense: 2C:14-3(b)

Sexual contact plus any circumstance from 2C:14-2(c)(1) through (c)(5):

• No permission. Coercion, or no affirmative and freely given permission. Nearly every adult case falls here.
• Custody. The complaining witness was on probation or parole or held in an institution, and the accused had authority over them through a job or legal status.
• A 16- or 17-year-old and a relative, a guardian, or anyone with supervisory or disciplinary authority over the teenager of whatever kind, such as a coach, a tutor or a manager at a part-time job.
• A 13- to 15-year-old and an accused at least four years older.
• A pupil aged 18 to 21 without a diploma and a school employee, contractor or volunteer with authority over them.

The 3rd-degree offense: 2C:14-3(a)

Sexual contact plus any circumstance from 2C:14-2(a)(2) through (a)(7): a 13- to 15-year-old and a relative, household guardian or person with authority through a legal, professional or occupational status; contact during a robbery, burglary, kidnapping or similar crime; a weapon with a threat to use it; help from others; severe personal injury; or a person the accused knew or should have known was helpless, incapacitated or unable to understand or consent. Contact with a child under 13 is deliberately left out of 2C:14-3. When the accused is at least four years older, that conduct is charged as 2nd-degree sexual assault under 2C:14-2(b).

Contact Offenses by Grade

The bottom two rows are the same crime with very different futures. The age of the complaining witness, not the grade, decides registration.

What a Conviction Brings, Grade by Grade

Aggravated criminal sexual contact, 3rd degree. A range of 3 to 5 years, no NERA, and no statutory presumption of prison. Registration applies whatever the complaining witness’s age; because 2C:7-2(g) does not list it, someone whose only offense is aggravated contact may ask the court to end registration once 15 years pass without a new offense. Parole Supervision for Life is mandatory (N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4), the Department of Corrections examination under N.J.S.A. 2C:47-1 is required, a second conviction under 2C:14-2 or 2C:14-3(a) carries at least five years without parole (2C:14-6), and the conviction can never be expunged.

Criminal sexual contact, 4th degree. Up to 18 months, with a presumption of non-imprisonment for a first offender under N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(e). No NERA, no PSL, no Avenel examination and no 2C:14-6 minimum. Registration under 2C:7-2(b)(2) applies only “if the victim is a minor,” so adult cases are not registrable and (c)(5) never triggers it; a registrant with that single offense can petition after 15 offense-free years. An adult-witness conviction can be expunged after the waiting period; a minor-witness conviction cannot. Our Middlesex Megan’s Law page covers tier hearings.

A frequent misstatement online. Not every criminal sexual contact conviction means registration or lifetime supervision. With an adult complaining witness, the 4th-degree offense carries neither.

Statute of limitations. Neither grade is unlimited. With an adult complaining witness the State has five years. With a minor, the deadline is five years after the complaining witness turns 18 or two years after the complaining witness discovers the offense, whichever comes later.

Contact orders. When the charge is a Megan’s Law offense (aggravated contact, or contact with a minor), N.J.S.A. 2C:14-12 lets the court forbid contact with the complaining witness while the case is pending, and N.J.S.A. 2C:44-8 lets it continue that order at sentencing. A civil protective order is also available to the complaining witness without any charge; see our page on sex offense restraining orders.

Immigration. Where the complaining witness was younger than 16, federal immigration authorities may treat the conviction as the aggravated felony of “sexual abuse of a minor,” following Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions, 581 U.S. 385 (2017). Other versions need review by immigration counsel before any plea, and a downgrade to a non-sexual offense is often the safest result.

How Middlesex County Handles Contact Allegations

The facts tend to fall into a few settings: a crowded store or commuter train, a workplace, a party, a therapy or medical visit, or a disclosure by a teenager about a relative, coach or tutor. Local police in New Brunswick, Edison or Piscataway take the report, and the MCPO Special Victims Unit, which handles sexual crimes against both adults and children, takes over the investigation.

Adult cases are built quickly from video, witness accounts and, in workplace matters, a detective-monitored phone call or text thread designed to draw out an apology. Cases involving minors go through the SVU’s Multi-Disciplinary Team with the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, and a detective conducts a recorded forensic interview of the young complaining witness. If that interview used leading or repeated questions, State v. Michaels, 136 N.J. 299 (1994), gives the defense a pretrial taint hearing.

AG Directive 2016-6 mandates a complaint-warrant for sexual assault but not for 2C:14-3, so a person charged only with contact often gets a summons and goes home. When a warrant does issue, the person goes to the Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick until a first appearance. Indictment is by a grand jury in New Brunswick.

For a Rutgers student, a Title IX or student conduct case often begins before any criminal charge. We advise on both at once, because a written statement to the university can become evidence in court; see our New Brunswick criminal defense page.

If an aggravated contact conviction follows, the MCPO Megan’s Law Unit proposes a tier, and if the Avenel examination leads to a treatment sentence, it is served at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township.

PTI and Other Ways Out

Third- and fourth-degree crimes are not presumed to mean prison, which keeps Rule 3:28-1(d)(1)’s consent requirement out of the picture, and admission does not require a guilty plea. That makes Pretrial Intervention in Middlesex County a real option, filed through the Criminal Division before the first case disposition conference after arraignment. The prosecutor must still recommend admission, and Rule 3:28-4(b)(1) weighs against cases involving deliberate violence or threats, which matters for (a)(3), (a)(4) and (a)(6) charges. A completed PTI term ends with the charge dismissed, and a dismissal creates no registration duty, even in a minor-witness case. Other exits are dismissal by the grand jury or by motion, or a downgrade to an offense outside chapter 14, such as harassment, or to disorderly persons lewdness, which is not registrable.

Defenses to a Criminal Sexual Contact Charge

• No sexual purpose. A collision in a crowd, a professional touch during treatment or a hug misread in a tense moment lacks the purpose the definition requires.
• Not an intimate part. Contact with an arm, shoulder or upper back falls outside the closed list.
• Permission. A (c)(1) charge asks what a reasonable person would have concluded from everything both people said and did; State in Interest of M.T.S., 129 N.J. 422 (1992), lets permission be shown through conduct as well as words.
• Identity. In a packed space, video often shows that someone else made the contact.
• The aggravating fact. For a 3rd-degree charge, test whether the person was truly “physically helpless,” whether a second person actually aided, and whether an injury meets the statutory definition. Without that fact, the charge falls to 4th degree.
• Age and relationship. A (c)(4) case needs a four-year gap; see close-in-age rules in NJ. A mistaken belief about age is not a defense (N.J.S.A. 2C:14-5(c)).

Talk to a Middlesex County Criminal Sexual Contact Lawyer

On this charge the best outcomes, from a dismissal to PTI to a non-sexual downgrade, are usually set up in the first weeks. Call William Proetta Criminal Law at (732) 659-9600 for a free, confidential case review, or send us a message through our contact page.