Belmar New Jersey Resisting Arrest Lawyer

If you find yourself dealing with law enforcement officers, one way to make a tough situation worse is to resist arrest or try to evade the officer trying to apprehend you. No one ever wants to be arrested, but resisting or eluding arrest will add another crime to whatever charges you may have been facing. Whatever started the encounter with police officers in Belmar, New Jersey, may or may not have been your fault. Still, if you resist the officers' efforts to bring you into custody, you are virtually certain to face additional charges.

If you are charged with resisting arrest, the attorneys at Tara Breslow-Testa and Associates are available to help you. We have experience and expertise to help you determine and take the next best step in your situation. Importantly, knowledgeable criminal defense attorney Tara Breslow-Testa lends her expertise to each case. She handles cases from start to finish and provides her clients with advocacy tailored to their needs. Give our Belmar resisting arrest lawyers a call today at (732) 784-2880, or contact us online to schedule your consultation.

A few actions can bring charges of resisting arrest, including trying to prevent an officer from concluding an arrest of a suspect. The interference with the arrest can take several forms, including:

• Use of force, including hitting or kicking, shoving, or even spitting at an officer
• Threats of force, including angry words that put the officer in fear of violence
• Attempting to flee to prevent the officer from making the arrest
• Any other means of interference that creates a real risk of physical injury to the officer or anyone else

The actions can lead to a charge of resisting arrest, ranging from lashing out physically to spewing out vicious threats that give the officer reason to believe they'll be harmed if they carry out the arrest to trying to escape the officer's attempts to control you physically.

The threat of harm doesn't even have to be directed at the officer to lead to charges—if you use a passerby as a "human shield" to get between the officer and you, the charge of resisting arrest can still apply even if the officer was never physically touched in the process, for example.

A conviction on a resisting arrest charge is a disorderly persons offense in a case where you purposely prevent the officer from making the arrest. You can face up to six months in jail and a fine of $1,000 on a conviction.

If you flee to attempt to elude the arrest, the crime is of the fourth degree. If you use force or violence against the arresting officer or flee in a vehicle or vessel in the water as part of the resistance, it is a third-degree crime. If you flee the arrest in a vehicle and cause a risk of serious injury or death, you can face second-degree charges.

Suppose you're driving a vehicle on the streets of Belmar, New Jersey, or piloting a watercraft in the area, and you make an intentional effort to flee or avoid stopping when a law officer has signaled you to bring your vehicle or vessel to a stop. In that case, you can be charged with eluding. Eluding an officer is a third-degree crime. If the process of fleeing from the officer in a car or watercraft creates a risk of death or injury to anyone, the crime is a second-degree offense. This is the second-most severe crime in New Jersey.

If the crime of eluding involved an attempt to flee in a vehicle or vessel, your driver's license or vessel operating privileges will be suspended for between six months and two years. In the case of someone under 17, the license suspension, including the privilege to operate a motorized bicycle, starts on the day the sentence is imposed and runs for the time ordered by the court.

Even if you're sure you've done nothing wrong and that the officer is making a mistake in trying to arrest you, an attempt to evade the officer's arrest is still a crime. It is no defense that the officer acted unlawfully, as long as it was within the "color of official authority" and announced to you before any resistance.

Facing charges of resisting arrest in Belmar, New Jersey, is a serious matter. Depending on the facts of the situation and how you resisted or fled the attempted arrest, you can face years in prison upon conviction of the crime. As an experienced criminal defense attorney, we can help you fight the charges.

The Belmar resisting arrest lawyers at Tara Breslow-Testa and Associates stand ready to help you. In fact, adept criminal defense attorney Tara Breslow-Testa advocates for each client at the firm. She provides skilled representation tailored to her clients’ needs. Resisting arrest is not a crime you want just any lawyer representing you for; you only want the best. Call us at (732) 784-2880 or contact us online to schedule your consultation.