STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. PETER TRIESTMAN
A-6408-08T4 09-10-10
We dismissed an indictment charging defendant with fourth-
degree sexual contact because the prosecutor failed to correctly
read and reference statutory sexual offenses when the grand jury
was convened on September 23, 2008. The mistakes in the charge
left the grand jury with no idea of which portions of N.J.S.A.
2C:14-2 were incorporated by reference into N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3b,
which defendant was ultimately charged with violating. This was
compounded with the passage of eleven weeks before the
prosecutor presented defendant's case, at which time she
provided no further written or oral charge to the jury. We
referred this matter to the Criminal Practice Committee.
Defendant also sought dismissal of the indictment on the
ground that the statute requires physical force in addition to
mere sexual contact. He urges there was no evidence of any
physical force, negating an indictment under N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3b.
We rejected this argument because the Supreme Court in State v.
M.T.S., 129 N.J. 422, 444 (1992), unequivocally stated that it
was "hardly possible" that the Legislature in enacting N.J.S.A.
2C:14-3 "wanted to decriminalize unauthorized sexual intrusions
on the bodily integrity of a victim by requiring a showing of
force in addition to that entailed in the sexual contact
itself."
