State v. Tarlowe

851 A.2d 53, 370 N.J. Super. 224
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJune 24, 2004
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 851 A.2d 53 (State v. Tarlowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Tarlowe, 851 A.2d 53, 370 N.J. Super. 224 (N.J. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

851 A.2d 53 (2004)
370 N.J. Super. 224

STATE of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
Bruce R. TARLOWE, Defendant-Appellant.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued May 12, 2004.
Decided June 24, 2004.

*55 Steven G. Sanders, Secaucus, argued the cause for appellant (Arseneault, Fassett & Mariano, attorneys; Mr. Sanders of counsel and on the brief).

Russell J. Curley, Deputy Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent (Peter C. Harvey, Attorney General of New Jersey, attorney; Mr. Curley, of counsel and on the brief).

Before Judges CUFF, WINKELSTEIN and LARIO.

*54 The opinion of the court was delivered by LARIO, J.A.D.

On November 7, 2002, under state indictment 00-04-00062-S, a jury found defendant, *56 Bruce Tarlowe, guilty of second-degree health care claims fraud, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:21-4.3c (count one); and third-degree theft by deception, in violation of N.J.S.A. 2C:20-4 (count two). On February 14, 2003, Judge Heimlich sentenced defendant to a term of three years imprisonment (appropriate for a crime one degree lower than the second-degree crime for which defendant was convicted, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1f(2)) under count one, concurrent with a term of three years imprisonment under count two. A fine of $1000, a Violent Crime Compensation Board penalty of $100, a Safe Neighborhood Service Fund assessment of $150, and a Law Enforcement Officers' Protection Act assessment of $30 were imposed, and defendant was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $2,724.83. Defendant appeals his convictions and sentence, raising the following issues:

POINT I: THE SECOND-DEGREE CONVICTION SHOULD BE REVERSED, AND THE CHARGE DISMISSED, BECAUSE TARLOWE'S ALLEGED CONDUCT DOES NOT ESTABLISH A VIOLATION OF THE HEALTH CARE CLAIMS FRAUD ACT AS A MATTER OF LAW.
A. The proof at trial established conduct that is beyond the reach of the Act as a matter of law.
B. Applying the Health Care Claims Fraud Act to Tarlowe's alleged conduct violates his due process right to fair notice of what conduct is proscribed by criminal statutes.
C. Count one does not allege, and the jury instructions failed to require the jury to find specific intent to deceive. (Not raised below.)[*]
POINT II: BOTH CONVICTIONS SHOULD BE VACATED BECAUSE THE TRIAL COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION AND DEPRIVED DEFENDANT OF HIS RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL WHEN IT PRECLUDED DR. SEMEL FROM VIEWING THE VIDEOTAPE AND TESTIFYING THAT TARLOWE'S BIZARRE ACTIONS JUST PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT WERE SYMPTOMATIC OF HIS MEDICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL AILMENTS.
POINT III: BOTH CONVICTIONS SHOULD BE VACATED BECAUSE THE LAW DIVISION COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR WHEN IT ADMITTED THE TIME-LAPSE VIDEOTAPE INTO EVIDENCE.
A. The time-lapse recording methodology rendered the videotape unreliable as a matter of law.
B. The Law Division plainly erred when it admitted the videotape without requiring the state to lay a proper foundation at trial under N.J.R.E. 901. (Not raised below.)
POINT IV: THE THIRD-DEGREE CONVICTION SHOULD BE VACATED BECAUSE THE LAW DIVISION COMMITTED PLAIN ERROR WHEN IT AMENDED THE INDICTMENT AND FAILED TO INSTRUCT THE JURY ON AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF ATTEMPTED THEFT BY DECEPTION. (Not raised below.)
POINT V: BOTH CONVICTIONS SHOULD BE VACATED BECAUSE TWO OTHER ERRORS, STANDING ALONE OR CONSIDERED IN LIGHT OF THE ERRORS, SET FORTH ABOVE, DEPRIVED TARLOWE *57 OF HIS RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL AND REQUIRE REVERSAL.
A. The prosecutor engaged in prejudicial misconduct when she violated the Law Division's just-issued 404(b) ruling in her opening statement. (Not raised below.)
B. The Law Division inappropriately coerced a verdict by telling jurors that they would have to continue their deliberations six days later unless they reached a verdict that evening. (Not raised below.)

We affirm.

On Easter Sunday, April 12, 1998, at approximately 8:30 a.m., defendant, fifty-seven years old, was shopping in the A & P Supermarket located on Galloping Hill Road in Union Township. The pertinent facts were recorded on a time-lapse surveillance camera's videotape. Defendant was observed in the store's produce aisle when a head of lettuce fell from the produce bin onto the floor. Defendant picked up the head of lettuce but left a lettuce leaf on the corner of the non-skid floor mat that was next to the produce bin. Defendant placed the head of lettuce back in the bin and continued to shop in the produce aisle. Shortly thereafter, defendant returned to the area where the lettuce leaf was located and kicked the leaf off the mat and onto the tile floor. Defendant hovered in the vicinity of the lettuce leaf, and then suddenly stepped on the leaf and fell to the floor, striking his left arm and shoulder. Defendant remained sitting on the floor, looking around and holding his left arm. The store manager, who noticed the lettuce leaf and spoke with defendant, eventually assisted him up from the floor. Defendant claimed that he was hurt. He left the store unassisted, after refusing the manager's offer to call an ambulance.

Defendant drove himself to the emergency room of Union Memorial Hospital and advised the emergency room doctors that he had slipped on a piece of lettuce. Based upon his history, defendant was diagnosed as sustaining sprains of his left shoulder, cervical spine, and left elbow as a result of his fall. Thereafter, defendant obtained medical treatment and physical therapy from various doctors. When asked for a history of the injuries about which he complained, defendant told his doctors that he slipped and fell on a piece of lettuce.

Defendant, a licensed insurance broker, and the owner of The Tarlowe Agency, had obtained, through his agency, a health insurance policy with United States Life Insurance Company ("U.S.Life"). The policy was in effect at the time of defendant's fall. Defendant submitted nineteen claims, totaling approximately $5400, to U.S. Life for medical treatments that he received on account of his fall. All of the submitted claims indicated that defendant's injuries resulted from an accidental slip-and-fall. U.S. Life paid $2,724.83 to defendant's medical providers. These payments were made before U.S. Life obtained a copy of the A & P's surveillance videotape. Roberta Ferlita, a fraud investigator and former claims technician employed by U.S. Life, testified that U.S. Life would not have paid the nineteen claims submitted on behalf of defendant had it known that defendant staged the slip-and-fall, even if he sustained injuries as a result of the fall. Ferlita testified that defendant's health insurance policy contained an exclusion that precluded payment of a claim that was the product of a fraudulent slip-and-fall accident. At that point, the trial judge instructed the jurors that it was within the province of the jury alone to determine whether defendant staged his slip-and-fall accident.

Defendant's civil attorney testified that defendant met with him to discuss his fall. *58 Defendant told him that he was injured when he fell on a lettuce leaf in the produce aisle of the A & P.

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Bluebook (online)
851 A.2d 53, 370 N.J. Super. 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-tarlowe-njsuperctappdiv-2004.