New Jersey Stalking Lawyers

Stalking can generally be understood to be conduct in which an individual continually or repeatedly threatens, communicates, observes, or physically interferes with a person’s privacy or property.

New Jersey Stalking Offense

In New Jersey a person is said to be guilty of the offense of stalking if:

“he or she purposefully or knowingly engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear bodily injury to himself or a member of his immediate family or to fear the death of himself or a member of his immediate family.”

Like other crimes, the offense of stalking also has certain conditions that must be fulfilled in order to hold a person guilty of the offense of stalking.

• The conduct must be directed towards a specific person
• It must be repeated (more than once)
• A reasonable person must feel threatened by the other person’s behavior

If either of these conditions are not met a person should not be convicted for the offense of stalking.

Stalking Charges

In New Jersey, the crime of stalking is ordinarily a fourth degree offense, however a person can also be charged with stalking as a third degree offense if any of the following conditions compound the incident(s):

• A court order exists already prohibiting the conduct at the time of the offense
• the offense is a second or subsequent offense against the same victim
• the offense is committed while serving a jail sentence (or probation or parole) of a indictable offense of any state of United States

A conviction for the offense of fourth degree stalking could result in imprisonment for up to eighteen months, while a conviction of third degree stalking could mean a prison sentence of up to five years.

Stalking charges are detrimental to your personal and professional life,  fight back with our criminal defense at your side

Contact our New Jersey stalking lawyers

Don’t risk your freedom and risk irreparable harm to your life and your loved ones. Our team of experienced New Jersey criminal attorneys at Aiello, Harris, Abate, Law Group PC are respected throughout the legal community for our aggressive defense and successful arguments. If you have been charged with stalking, contact us immediately at (908) 561-5577 or contact us online. Your initial consultation is free, and we accept all major credit cards.