STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. DELORES RANDALL
A-2495-08T4 07-26-10
A prosecutor may not condition a defendant's participation
in the pre-trial intervention (PTI) program upon an agreement by
the defendant to plead guilty. Here the prosecutor erred in
doing so. However, the denial of participation in PTI is
upheld, nonetheless, because defendant had been violently and
directly combative with a law enforcement officer and yet failed
to acknowledge any responsibility for her conduct, claiming she
had been passive despite a contradictory video. Since the
program may not be effective for people who refuse to accept any
responsibility for their conduct, it was not an abuse of
discretion, under the circumstances here, for the prosecutor to
deny defendant participation in PTI.
