Blog Posts in February, 2016
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Fundamentalist church sect leaders accused of food stamp fraud
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueIn New Jersey, many families depend on food assistance to get by. The system, however, can be vulnerable to fraud, and federal investigators have arrested 11 members of one branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on charges of food stamp fraud and money laundering. The church leaders allegedly created an elaborate scheme to funnel food assistance funds from two of ...Continue Reading -
3 men sentenced to prison for failing to register new addresses
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueIt was reported Feb. 22 that three individuals who were on the New Jersey sex offender list were sent to jail after they did not update their addresses. All sex offenders must keep their addresses updated under Megan's Law. The three cases were not related. One 38-year-old man from Toms River pleaded guilty Dec. 21 to failing to register his new address in October. He was sentenced to 364 days in ...Continue Reading -
International Megan's Law passes Congress
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueNew Jersey residents may be interested to learn that Congress voted to identify sex offenders by putting a unique mark on their passports. If the law is signed by President Barack Obama, supporters hope that sex trafficking in other parts of the world may be reduced. The bill, known as International Megan's Law, was sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith after it was found in a 2010 GAO report that 4,500 ...Continue Reading -
New Jersey doctor charged with fraud
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueOn Feb. 10, a New Jersey doctor was charged for billing Medicare and Medicaid for tests that were not actually performed. According to the complaint, the gynecologist allegedly billed both agencies for rectal tests between 2006 and 2011, none of which were conducted. The complaint also stated the doctor billed more than the next top 10 billers in the state. The prosecutors in the case interviewed ...Continue Reading -
Sleep deprivation linked to false confessions
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueTactics that are commonly used by law enforcement agencies in New Jersey and around the country have once again been linked with false confessions. Civil rights advocates have widely criticized the use of the psychologically aggressive Reid Technique against emotionally vulnerable individuals, and those protests may soon be growing louder. Researchers at Michigan State University have found a ...Continue Reading -
FBI collecting more data on animal cruelty
Posted By Brickfield & DonahuePeople in New Jersey can be charged for animal cruelty crimes if they grossly neglect, torture or abuse animals. The Federal Bureau of Investigation started collecting detailed information about animal cruelty in its National Incident-Based Reporting System on Jan. 1. Now, acts of animal cruelty will be counted individually rather than lumped into the 'All Other Offenses" category. A spokesperson ...Continue Reading -
Record number of prisoners exonerated in 2015
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueNew Jersey residents have likely read news reports about individuals being released from prison after spending decades behind bars for crimes that they did not commit. Researchers from the University of Michigan's National Registry of Exonerations keep track of the number of innocent people who are freed from incarceration in the United States each year, and they released their annual report on ...Continue Reading -
Lie detector tests for monitoring New Jersey sex offenders
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueWhile the use of lie detectors to monitor the activities of sex offenders might seem appropriate to some individuals, five sex offenders in New Jersey challenged the practice based on alleged civil rights violations that could occur because of the monitoring. The state is responsible for the oversight of nearly 7,500 sex offenders, and polygraph tests can legally be used to evaluate these ...Continue Reading -
New Jersey high school teacher charged with DWI
Posted By Brickfield & DonahueOn the night of Jan. 13, a New Jersey high school teacher was charged with drunk driving in Lodi. According to authorities, the female suspect stopped her vehicle on the 200 block of Church Street and proceeded to get into a verbal altercation with a resident standing nearby. Responding police officers gave the suspect, a 40-year-old Lodi resident, several field sobriety tests, which she allegedly ...Continue Reading
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