State v. Hupka

1 A.3d 640, 203 N.J. 222, 2010 N.J. LEXIS 746
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedAugust 3, 2010
DocketA-36 September Term 2009
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 1 A.3d 640 (State v. Hupka) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hupka, 1 A.3d 640, 203 N.J. 222, 2010 N.J. LEXIS 746 (N.J. 2010).

Opinions

Justice LaVECCHIA

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this matter we are called on to review the Appellate Division’s reversal of a May 2, 2008, trial court order that disqualified defendant Jeremiah Hupka “from holding any office or position of honor, trust or profit under this State or any of its administrative or political subdivisions, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:51-2 d.”1 A majority of the Appellate Division panel agreed with defendant that his conviction for fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3(b), did not “involve or touch upon” the public offices he held in law enforcement. The State has brought this appeal as of right based on the dissent filed below. See R. 2:2— 1(a)(2). For the reasons expressed, we affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division. Defendant, by his voluntary agreement, will never again seek future employment in this State or any other as a law enforcement officer. However, we hold that the State’s demand for permanent disqualification was not supported on this record. The offense to which he pled does not compel his forfeiture of office and permanent disqualification under N.J.S.A 2C:51-2.

I.

Defendant was employed as a Hunterdon County sheriffs officer, and also worked part-time as a Frenchtown police officer, when he was indicted on January 9, 2007, for an incident that [226]*226occurred a year earlier. The indictment involved a sexual encounter with a young female acquaintance of defendant. It is undisputed that at the time of the incident, defendant was neither on duty, nor in uniform. The following description of the alleged events is taken from the “Offense Circumstances” section of his presentenee report. Importantly, these allegations have never been admitted by defendant, nor have they been tested or proved at trial.

On the night of January 13, 2006, the victim, K.W., had been drinking with [a female friend.] In the early morning hours of January 14, 2006, the defendant, Jeremiah Hupka, and his [male] friend ... arrived at K.W.’s apartment. K.W. eventually fell asleep on her couch. Upon awaking the next morning, she woke up, felt ill and went to the bathroom where she was sick. While in the bathroom, she saw male ejaculate in her underwear and in the toilet and noticed soreness in her vaginal region. K.W. confronted both the defendant and [his male friend], however both denied having sex with her. K.W. later learned that she was pregnant. Upon terminating the pregnancy, DNA tests were conducted on the fetus and compared to that of the defendant, [his male friend] and the victim’s boyfriend____It was determined by the State’s DNA expert that there was a 99.9% possibility that the defendant had fathered the fetus.

Those allegations led a Hunterdon County grand jury to return a two-count indictment, charging defendant with first-degree aggravated sexual assault in violation of N.J.S.A 2C:14-2(a)(7), and second-degree sexual assault in violation of N.J.S.A 2C:14-2(c)(l). Defendant negotiated a plea bargain, pursuant to which he pled guilty to a single count of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact, N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3(b), as a lesser-included offense of the second-degree sexual assault charge, and the first-degree charge was to be dismissed. However, there was more to the plea bargain. Although defendant had voluntarily resigned both of his law enforcement positions after the indictment issued, the State made the plea conditional on defendant’s agreement never again to seek employment as a police officer in New Jersey or any other state, a condition to which defendant agreed. Further, the State raised statutory forfeiture and permanent disqualification from public employment pursuant to N.J.S.A 2C:51-2 (the forfeiture statute), due to defendant’s status as a public employee when the offense was committed. Defendant would not agree to statutory forfei[227]*227ture and permanent disqualification and it was not made a condition of the plea. Rather, the parties agreed to have the applicability of N.J.S.A 2C:51-2 resolved by the court.

In his plea allocution, defendant admitted that, on January 14, 2006, he was in Frenchtown with the victim, K.W., with whom he had had a prior relationship, and that he “touch[ed] her intimate parts, including her buttocks!,] ... without her freely-given consent!,] • • • [and] for purposes of [his] own sexual gratification.” Satisfied that defendant’s admissions created a sufficient factual basis to sustain the fourth-degree charge of criminal sexual contact, the court accepted the plea. The court then directed defense counsel and the State to brief whether defendant should be held to have statutorily forfeited his public employment and be permanently disqualified from any future public office or position as a result of his conviction.

The court heard argument on the issue at the time of sentencing. The State urged the court to find that the conviction “touched on” defendant’s employment as a law enforcement officer because police officers are “on duty” at all times and are obligated to uphold the law. In reliance on State v. Rodriguez, 383 N.J.Super. 663, 893 A.2d 60 (App.Div.2006), the State argued that defendant’s conviction not only bore directly on his police position, but also, by extension, on defendant’s competency to perform any public job. Defendant disagreed with the sweeping argument advanced by the State. He argued that the proper inquiry as to the forfeiture statute’s applicability was whether there existed a specific and direct nexus between the offense committed and the public office held. Urging the court to find that no such nexus was presented on the facts here, defendant argued against the entry of an order of forfeiture and disqualification.

The trial court, relying on the two-pronged test enunciated in Moore v. Youth Correctional Institute, 119 N.J. 256, 574 A.2d 983 (1990), concluded that defendant’s conviction for fourth-degree criminal sexual contact was serious and was “at direct odds with the duty to protect and serve the very community within which he [228]*228was the officer.” Accordingly, the court ordered defendant’s forfeiture of and permanent disqualification from public office pursuant to N.J.S.A 2C:51-2, and thereupon sentenced defendant, in accordance with the terms of the plea agreement, to a two-year term of probation, with the conditions noted previously.

Defendant appealed,2 and a divided Appellate Division panel reversed. State v. Hupka, 407 N.J.Super. 489, 493, 971 A.2d 1102 (App.Div.2009). The majority, pointing to the amendments to the forfeiture statute made in 2007 to incorporate this Court’s holding in McCann v. Clerk of Jersey City, 167 N.J. 311, 771 A.2d 1123 (2001), discerned a legislative preference for the “involving and touching” standard enunciated in McCann, over the Moore standard on which the trial court relied. Hupka, supra, 407 N.J.Super. at 505-06, 971 A.2d 1102. Applying the McCann standard to the facts presented, the majority found no nexus between the performance of defendant’s public duties and the crime for which he pled and was convicted, id.

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Bluebook (online)
1 A.3d 640, 203 N.J. 222, 2010 N.J. LEXIS 746, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hupka-nj-2010.