But authorities could find no trace of the boy, later reporting they could not locate anyone who had even seen him at the acre park. Rockoff at the time. She said she recognized the woman from a bank where she once worked as a teller, and believed she worked as a go-go dancer.
Lodzinski claimed Ellen agreed to watch Timothy while she went to the concession stand for a soda, and left her son with her.
But after getting the soda, Ellen, Timothy, the woman, the little girl and the two men were all gone. And they failed to identify Ellen. Lodzinski said the man indicated she might get her son back in a month and she might get a call from him. His face would appear on the back of milk cartons.
Tragically, his skull and other remains were discovered nearly a year later in a remote area not far from where one of his distinctive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sneakers had been found months earlier along a shallow creek in a remote section of Raritan Center.
Police say what was left of his body did not offer any indication of how the boy died or give any clues about his killer. Prosecutors later charged that Lodzinski had not told investigators she had once worked at Raritan Center. Michelle Lodzinski, 2nd from the right, is escorted into St. Mary's Church in South Amboy by her parents and other family members in May for the funeral of her son. Star-Ledger file photo. The next day, Lodzinski contacted Detroit police and claimed she had been abducted by two men claiming to be FBI agents.
After she was interviewed by investigators from the Detroit police armed robbery unit and the FBI, Lodzinski admitted to the hoax, which authorities believed was cooked up to avoid a subpoena in a case involving a Union County police officer accused of improperly using a police computer to run license plate numbers of cars she believed were following her.
Then in , investigators began taking another look at the evidence they collected in the long-shelved case. All three testified later at the trial that they had had seen the blanket in her home when they were babysitting there. Lodzinski had left New Jersey and was living and working in Florida in August of when police arrived with a warrant and arrested her in Port St.
Lucie, Fla. She has been in custody ever since. All state courthouses are open to the public. Visitors no longer need an appointment or a scheduled matter in order to enter a courthouse. Judges and court staff are working on-site each day.
More court matters are being conducted in person, including some jury trials. Judges can schedule an in-person proceeding based on the facts and circumstances in any case.
The courts continue to conduct matters remotely. The Supreme Court reviews the decisions of New Jersey's other courts. The Supreme Court, like the Appellate Division, often must interpret laws that are unclear or that conflict with other laws.
For example, when does one person's right to protest interfere with the privacy rights of the person who is the target of the protest? When may the police search someone's home or car? What did the Legislature intend when it enacted a particular law? As in the Appellate Division, there are no juries or witnesses, and no new evidence is considered. Instead, the Supreme Court examines whether the proceedings and outcomes in the lower courts were fair, unbiased and conducted in accordance with the law, and whether the outcomes were correct under the law.
By far, most of the cases filed in New Jersey's courts are heard in the Municipal Courts. In fact, about six million of the seven million cases filed in New Jersey's courts each year are filed in the Municipal Courts. The Municipal Courts hear a great variety of cases. Municipal Court is where cases involving motor-vehicles offenses, such as illegal parking, speeding and driving while intoxicated, are heard.
Municipal Courts also hear cases involving minor criminal offenses such as simple assault, trespassing and shoplifting. In New Jersey, these minor crimes are known as disorderly persons offenses.
Cases involving hunting, fishing and boating laws and even minor disputes between neighbors are also heard in Municipal Courts. Municipal Courts are operated by the city, township or borough in which the courts are located.
There are Municipal Courts in the state. Under this process, the Governor nominates a person to be a justice or a judge. The Governor submits the nomination to the state Senate, which then votes whether to confirm the nominee for the position.
If confirmed by the Senate, the nominee is sworn in for an initial term of seven years. After seven years, justices and judges can be reappointed. Again, the Governor submits a nomination to the state Senate, which votes whether to confirm the nominee for reappointment. Justices and judges who are reappointed have tenure, which allows them to remain in their posts until they reach the age of 70, when the New Jersey Constitution requires that they retire.
The appointment process and tenure strengthen judicial independence. Municipal Court judges are appointed by the town's governing body. Terms are for three years. Municipal Court judges may be reappointed, but there is no tenure. Each year, thousands of citizens in New Jersey serve as jurors in Superior Court. Jury service is a civic duty in our democracy. When jurors decide a case, they represent the community as a whole.
By serving as jurors, people help to ensure that our system of justice is fair. There are two types of juries: petit juries and grand juries. Most jurors serve on petit juries. Petit means small. A petit jury decides the outcome of a criminal trial or of a civil trial in which monetary damages are sought. In New Jersey, juries in criminal trials consist of 12 jurors, while juries in civil trials consist of six jurors. People also are summoned to serve on grand juries.
A grand jury decides whether there is enough evidence for a person to be brought to trial for a crime. Most criminal cases begin with a decision by a grand jury to indict a defendant. An indictment is an official, written accusation charging someone with a crime.
An indictment is not proof of a crime. Grand juries consist of 23 people who typically meet once a week for 16 weeks. Grand juries are operated by prosecutors, who decide what evidence to present to the grand jury.
Unlike criminal or civil trials, grand jury proceedings are not open to the public. Jurors, whether petit or grand, are chosen at random from among a county's registered voters and licensed drivers, as well as from among those residents who file state income tax returns and homestead rebate applications.
In order to serve as a juror in New Jersey, a person must meet certain qualifications. A juror must be a U. Our system of justice relies on the diligence and dedication that ordinary people bring to jury duty.
Every court case has a name, or caption. In most case captions, the plaintiff's name comes first, followed by the abbreviation v. John Jones, or simply Smith v. In criminal cases in New Jersey the plaintiff is always the State of New Jersey because in the eyes of the law, a crime is committed not just against the victim but against society as a whole. A criminal case against Michael Jones would be called State v. Not every case name, however, includes both the plaintiff and the defendant.
In some civil cases, the caption very briefly describes the case by referring to the subject of the dispute. Probation is a sentence that judges can impose on people convicted of crimes. Probation is typically given to first time offenders who are convicted of non-violent crimes.
Probation allows an offender to serve his or her sentence in the community under the supervision of a probation officer. Probation officers work for the Judiciary. A sentence of probation may require an offender to pay fines, to pay restitution to the victims of his or her crime, to seek counseling for substance abuse or for mental health or family problems, or to perform community-service work, such as cleaning litter from a park or highway or removing graffiti from a building.
People on probation remain under the authority of the court. Offenders who violate the conditions of their probation may be returned to court and resentenced to prison. Probation is different from parole. In parole, offenders are supervised by parole officers upon their release from prison. The written, published opinions of courts are contained in law books.
These published opinions constitute what is known as case law. Finding a court opinion in a law book is easy. The published opinions of New Jersey's courts are contained in three different sets of books.
The opinions in these books are identified by their case citations. A case citation begins with the name of the case. Next comes the volume number of the book in which the opinion can be found, followed by the abbreviated name of the book, followed by the page number. Last, in parentheses, is the year of the decision. A citation of State v.
Ramseur N. Parks N. And a citation of National Paving Co. Director of the Division of Taxation 3 N. Tax , means that the opinion can be found in volume 3 of the New Jersey Tax Court Reports, on page , and that it was decided in Law books are available in the libraries of each of the county courthouses, whose addresses and phone numbers are listed in the back of this brochure.
There is a Superior court in each of New Jersey's 21 counties. The Superior courts are grouped into 15 court districts called vicinages.
Vicinage comes from the Latin word vicinus, and means vicinity, neighborhood or district.
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