Essex County Gun and Weapons Charges Lawyer

Essex County Gun and Weapons Charges Lawyer

You got arrested in Essex County last week, maybe a traffic stop on the Garden State Parkway where the officer asked to search your vehicle and found a handgun in the glove compartment, maybe police executed a search warrant at your Newark apartment and found a rifle, maybe you got pulled over in Montclair and told the officer you had a firearm in the car thinking honesty would help but you didn’t have a New Jersey permit, maybe you’re from Pennsylvania or another state where you legally own firearms but New Jersey doesn’t recognize out-of-state permits, and now you’re charged with unlawful possession of a weapon under N.J.S.A. 2C:39-5 and the officer or prosecutor mentioned the Graves Act, and you don’t know what you’re facing because gun charges in New Jersey carry mandatory minimum prison sentences under the Graves Act where you must serve at least 42 months, three and a half years, before you’re even eligible for parole, no early release, no time off for good behavior until you hit that 42-month minimum, and the only way to avoid that mandatory minimum is a Graves Act waiver which requires the prosecutor to agree and the assignment judge to approve, and most people facing gun charges in Essex County don’t get waivers, and handgun possession without a permit in Essex County is a second-degree crime carrying five to ten years in state prison where New Jersey requires a specific permit to purchase a handgun, separate from the Firearms Identification Card, and even if you have an FID card you still can’t possess a handgun without the permit to purchase since the Graves Act applies to handgun possession, meaning if you’re convicted you face a mandatory minimum of 42 months in state prison or one-third to one-half of your sentence, whichever is longer, where for a five-year sentence that’s 20 months minimum before parole eligibility, for a seven-year sentence that’s 28 months, but the Graves Act mandates 42 months minimum regardless, so even if the judge sentences you to five years you still serve 42 months minimum before parole consideration with no county jail, no halfway house, no home confinement but state prison for 42 months minimum, and rifle or shotgun possession without a Firearms Identification Card in Essex County is a third-degree crime meaning three to five years in state prison where the Graves Act applies here too, same 42-month mandatory minimum or one-third to one-half of sentence, and BB guns and air guns get treated exactly like rifles and shotguns in New Jersey where unlawful possession of a BB gun is a third-degree crime with Graves Act mandatory minimum, which surprises people who think BB guns aren’t real firearms, but New Jersey law classifies them as firearms for prosecution purposes, while possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, having any weapon with intent to use it unlawfully against another person, becomes second-degree crime for handguns, third-degree for other weapons where Graves Act mandatory minimum applies, and certain persons not to possess firearms under N.J.S.A. 2C:39-7 means if you have a prior conviction for certain enumerated crimes you cannot possess any firearm ever, and possession becomes a second-degree crime with five to ten years prison and Graves Act mandatory minimum where new 2025 law escalates this further since if you possess a firearm and you have a prior conviction under the No Early Release Act called NERA which requires 85% of sentence to be served, or any prior indictable offense, the new gun possession charge becomes first-degree with ten to twenty years in state prison, and this 2025 change means anyone with any prior indictable conviction in New Jersey who gets caught with a gun now faces first-degree charges with ten-year minimum sentences, and thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group, a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek where we’ve represented clients in Essex County gun cases for over 40 years, many, many cases at the Veterans Courthouse in Newark, negotiated Graves Act waivers, challenged unlawful searches that led to gun discoveries, if you’re reaching out to us we understand the stakes you’re facing.

Graves Act waiver under N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.2 is the only path to avoid the mandatory minimum for first-time gun offenders where the prosecutor files a motion, the assignment judge in Essex County Superior Court holds a hearing, and if the waiver is granted the mandatory minimum drops from 42 months to one year, or the judge can sentence you to probation with no prison time, but waivers aren’t automatic, aren’t guaranteed since the prosecutor has discretion whether to even file the motion, and Essex County prosecutors deny waiver requests regularly for cases involving loaded firearms, guns found during other crimes, defendants with any prior criminal history even if not gun-related, cases where the defendant lied to police about the gun, and if you have any prior gun offense, no waiver since you’re facing the full 42-month mandatory minimum, while if the gun was loaded when found, waiver becomes much harder to obtain, and if you were arrested for another crime and they found the gun during that arrest, prosecutors almost never agree to waivers.

Pre-Indictment Conference in Essex County is where Graves Act waiver negotiations happen since after arrest, after grand jury indictment, before formal arraignment, there’s a PIC where your attorney meets with the assistant prosecutor handling gun cases, discusses the facts, argues for a waiver, and this is THE critical stage because once you pass PIC without securing a waiver, you’re heading to trial or pleading guilty with the mandatory minimum where former prosecutors who handled gun cases in Essex County know the current assistant prosecutors in the gun unit, know the assignment judge who decides waivers, know which arguments work like first-time offender, gun was unloaded, gun belonged to someone else and you didn’t know it was in your vehicle, gun was being transported properly from one location to another, legitimate purpose for possessing the firearm, and your attorney’s relationship with the prosecutor’s office and knowledge of the assignment judge’s waiver patterns makes the difference between 42 months in prison and probation.

Defense strategies in Essex County gun cases start with challenging the search that discovered the weapon where did the officer have probable cause to search your vehicle, did you actually consent to the search or did the officer claim you consented, was the gun in plain view or did they search closed containers without a warrant, did they have a valid search warrant for your residence and was it executed properly, with suppression motions to exclude the gun from evidence since if the search was illegal the gun can’t be used against you and the charges get dismissed, while challenging possession means the gun was in a shared vehicle or shared residence where the State has to prove you knew the gun was there and had control over it, not just that you were present, and challenging knowledge means you didn’t know the item was a firearm, you thought it was a toy or replica, and exceptions for lawful transportation include New Jersey law allowing transporting firearms between certain locations if unloaded and in a closed container, from home to range, from point of purchase to home, moving to a new residence.

Out-of-state gun owners get arrested in Essex County regularly where you’re driving through New Jersey with a valid concealed carry permit from Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, wherever, you think your permit is valid, you get pulled over, you inform the officer you have a firearm, and you get arrested because New Jersey doesn’t recognize any out-of-state carry permits where the officer doesn’t care that you’re legal in your home state, doesn’t care that you were just passing through, arrests you for unlawful possession, second-degree crime, Graves Act mandatory minimum, since New Jersey has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, stricter than federal law, stricter than neighboring states, and ignorance of New Jersey law isn’t a defense.

Former Essex County prosecutors who now do gun defense know the assignment judge who decides Graves Act waivers, know that judge’s approval patterns, know which prosecutors in the gun unit are more receptive to waiver arguments versus which prosecutors fight every waiver motion while at Spodek Law Group our attorneys have handled many, many gun cases in Essex County Superior Court, won suppression motions on illegal vehicle searches, secured Graves Act waivers for first-time offenders, challenged constructive possession when guns were found in shared spaces, but most work happens preventing that 42-month mandatory minimum from destroying someone’s life.

Call 212-300-5196.