No matter who you ask, a home invasion is a scary topic. Scarier if you are in the home. Scarier more if you are sleeping. What happens if the home invader climbs into bed with you and then wants to stay the night? For one New Jersey woman, she had to answer this question.

The woman screamed when the man crawled into bed with her and he fled. The cops believe the man followed the woman into her building earlier and entered through an open window or door. More reason to keep your windows and doors locked!

NJ Gov. Christie unveiled three bills this week that would prohibit employers from discriminating against people with expunged criminal records, accelerate some expungements, increase the number of convictions that can be expunged and reduce waiting period for juvenile records. As an attorney who does expungements for individuals on a regular basis, these bills are necessary.

Very often I listen to a story about a bad choice someone made in their past and paid the price. They have now changed their life or are back on track making good choices. Except every time they look for that job, the employer likes them until the criminal background check comes back. Then it is "sorry, we do not have a position for you." 

The goal of these bills is to stop minor criminal offenses from resulting in roadblocks for someones entire life. If passed, I think the biggest impact would be the proposed bill to reduce the 10 year waiting period to expunge a crime down to six years. Six years is still very long, but it is greatly reduced. The problem with the 10 year rule is that it is 10 years from basically the last thing happening in your case. Say for instance you are found guilty in 2000. You are then sentenced to 5 years in jail. You are released from jail in 2003 for good behavior, but are now on parole. You finish parole in 2005. Now you start the 10 year clock. So that means that something that occurred in 1999 or 2000 cannot be expunged until 2015. It's too long to put your life back together effectively. Yes you can make good choices and likely find some job, but it won't be a job that pays the bills. 

It may be my age talking, but I still do not understand the need to post everything on social media. I understand the random updates about something great your kids did, a fun event or a birthday; but not a crime!

An 18 year old man out of Camden decided he was going to rob a bank. Then it was a few. The police had surveillance photos, maybe a witness account, photo of gun and photo of what he was wearing. Nothing concrete pointing to him. 

Then the man put a photo on his Instagram account showing a gun in similar size and shape to the one on the surveillance video. Then there were other photos of him in a specific flight jacket as the one worn by a man robbing one of the banks. Another bank gets robbed and a new photo goes up on Instagram. This time showing the man fanning $100 bills and a gun sticking out of his pants. The final robbery occurs at a bank and surveillance shows a masked man wearing a bomber jacket with a shoulder patch. Don't you know that a new Instagram photo is posted showing him in a similar jacket helping a woman shoot a handgun. 

What I think people forget is that the police check social media. They look at postings when the are investigating a crime. I don't think this 18 year old even thought the police would look. Either way, he was arrested and has a nice photo array of himself for the jury now.

A lot of criminal cases come down to what an eye witness tells the jury. In some cases, the eye witness is 100% accurate in replaying the events. More commonly, the witness has mistaken, but may not know it. A story out of Missouri is a prime example. Seventeen years ago an eye witness testified that he saw a man wrestle a woman to the ground outside a store in an attempt to steal her purse. No DNA or fingerprints were found. No real physical evidence. Just witness testimony and their identification of the defendant as being the one committing this crime. As a result, a jury found this man guilty. While serving his sentence in jail, the man learned of another individual who lived in the state that looked like him. Turns out this look-a-like or doppleganger not only looked just like the man, but they also had the same first name.

After a lot of effort, the innocent man was freed from jail, but unfortunately, it was after he spent seventeen years in jail for a crime he did not commit. The photographs of the two men side by side are striking.


See story here:  https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-freed-17-years-jail-193500777.html

Here is an interesting story about a man in Florida who has repeatedly been arrested over the last 8 years. Each time his mug shot is taken and each time his face changes ever so slightly. The progression of photos shows a new tattoo with each photo until eventually you reach the most recent mugshot where his face is practically covered. The article certainly does not pin point what led to the tattoo obsession on his face, but tends to assume crime had a role in the decision making. Maybe this individual just simply likes the face tattoo look. Either way, the photo progression display in the article is interesting to see.

​https://nypost.com/2017/06/07/this-is-what-crime-does-to-your-face/