Overview: The Appellate Section of the Essex County Prosecutor's Office is the largest county prosecutor's appellate practice in the State, handling appeals from lower court decisions. The Section is staffed with nine attorneys, including the director, three clericals and several legal interns. While past practice was to include Appellate in a general rotation leading to a Trial slot, that is no longer the case. All of the attorneys assigned to the Section are career appellate lawyers. Consequently, the quality of the work produced by the Section has been consistently high. Every Supreme Court brief is read by at least two supervisors, and a moot court is conducted for arguments in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and every significant argument in the Appellate Division.

The Section routinely initiates its own appeals from adverse pre-trial and post-trial rulings, with the result that a number of cases, which were actually or effectively barred from trial, were successfully reinstated. The Section also works directly with the Trial staff by assisting or taking over some of the more difficult trial motions, by serving in a consulting capacity for trial attorneys, by providing legal updates and case summaries, by distributing memoranda on significant legal issues, and by running training programs in areas of need. The Section has also created and maintained a network brief bank available to the entire staff via their personal computer.

The Appellate Section supervises an increasingly active internship program. Over the course of the school year and during the summer, interns from both local and national colleges and law schools participate in the program. Interns are assigned to units throughout the office and third year law students appear in court.

Responsibilities:

· Represent and argue in court on behalf of the State in appeals and motions referred to the Essex County Prosecutor by the State Attorney General. This includes matters calendared for excessive sentencing oral arguments (ESOAs).

· Capital litigation - pre-trial and post-conviction.

· Institute our own appeals including emergent and interlocutory appeals.

· Respond to Petitions for habeas corpus relief in the Federal courts.

· Legal advisor to the trial assistants.

· Back-up to the Police Legal Advisor.

· Provide Assistant Prosecutors with information on new cases, new laws, etc.

· Co-ordinate the assignments of municipal appeals.

· Co-ordinate the assignments of PCR petitions.

· Represent the County in Federal Megan Law Cases.

· Represent the County on all gun permit appeals.

· Review all name change applications filed in this County.

· Obtain court orders for production of witnesses out of state, and for telephone records.

· Lecture at the Police Academies.

· Maintain and update brief bank.

· Interview, place and supervise college and law interns, including arranging for tours of the County Jail, the State Medical Examiner's Office, and the Essex County Police Academy, as well as organize a lecture series during the summer.

Accomplishments:

· Trial attorney input - trial assistants are now informed of cases which they have prosecuted and are now on appeal. The assistants are given copies of defendants' briefs when the appeals are referred to this Office for handling. They are then encouraged to speak with the appellate attorney who is assigned to the particular case.

· Peer review of briefs - appellate attorneys are now assigned to supervising appellate attorneys. One of the goals is to ensure that the attorneys are not taking inconsistent positions on the various issues we face. Another goal is to monitor the quality of the work we submit to the courts. This review has demonstrated that the Appellate Attorneys have always been filing briefs that have been outstanding and very well prepared.

· Maintenance of the brief bank.

· Obtained dismissals or denials in all our habeas cases for the last several years.

Significant Cases:

State v. Thomas - The Section argued this case before the NJ Supreme Court on the issue of sentencing under Blakely/Natale.

State v. Cuculo - This case involves an appeal by a former drug counselor for the courts who was convicted of sexually assaulting two of his female supervisees.

State v. Dawara - The Section successfully obtained an affirmance in the Appellate Division concerning the admissibility of digital photographs.

Douglas v. Hendricks - The Section filed the respondents' brief in the federal Third Circuit in this double homicide case.

State v. Cobb - The State's appeal in this homicide case, regarding an order granting post-conviction relief, is currently pending in the Appellate Division.

State v. Terrell - In this homicide case with gang-related overtones, an appeal was successfully prosecuted.

State v. Valenzuela - The Appellate Section successfully prosecuted the appeal of a police officer's conviction on several counts of falsification.

In 2006, a total of 343 criminal appeals and 58 disorderly person / motor vehicle appeals were disposed.