STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. TARIQ S. GATHERS
A-4772-15T2
The State sought and the trial court granted a motion to require defendant, who had been arrested months earlier on weapons charges and was awaiting trial in the county jail, to provide a buccal swab. The State sought to conduct this search and seizure to compare defendant's DNA with DNA that might be recovered from a weapon found near the crime scene, even though defendant had provided DNA as a result of a previous conviction. Because of the timing of the request and, among other things, the fact that the State hadn't first determined the presence of useful DNA on the weapon, the court found the search unreasonable and reversed.
