State v. Ashley D. Bailey (085342) (Camden County & Statewide) (A-60-20; 085342)
The crime-fraud exception cannot be properly applied to marital communications that preceded the Legislature’s amendment of N.J.R.E. 509. The Court finds no evidence that the Legislature intended that amendment to retroactively apply to otherwise privileged marital communications that occurred prior to that amendment. The trial court’s admission of the text messages therefore constituted error. However, that error was harmless given the extensive evidence presented by the State in support of defendant’s official misconduct convictions.
