Flemington NJ Burglary Defense Lawyers

Flemington NJ Burglary Defense Lawyers

Police arrested you at your ex-girlfriend’s apartment in Flemington at 2am. You walked in through an unlocked door — you weren’t breaking anything, you just wanted your stuff back, belongings she refused to return after the breakup. Now you’re facing third-degree burglary charges in Hunterdon County Superior Court, arraignment in 48 hours, prosecutor talking about 3-5 years in state prison. You had a key. You lived there six months ago. This wasn’t breaking and entering. But the police report says “unlawful entry with intent to commit theft” and suddenly you’re a burglar facing prison time. This is where you are. Not reading a legal textbook about N.J.S.A. 2C:18-2. You’re in your apartment at 3am, terrified, Googling “Flemington NJ burglary defense lawyers” trying to understand if one stupid decision ruins your entire life.

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. I’m Todd Spodek — second-generation criminal defense attorney, built on more than 40 years of family experience defending cases prosecutors called impossible. We represented Anna Delvey in the Netflix series Inventing Anna, defended the juror in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, handled high-profile Ponzi schemes. We defend burglary cases in Flemington with the same constitutional rigor Alan Dershowitz brought to Claus von Bülow: question everything, challenge the intent element, demand prosecutors prove unlawful purpose beyond reasonable doubt. Call 212-300-5196, 24/7.

What “Burglary” Actually Means in NJ

You’re confused.

“I didn’t break anything. I walked in an unlocked door. How is this burglary?” Here’s what most people don’t understand: New Jersey burglary doesn’t require “breaking.” N.J.S.A. 2C:18-2 defines burglary as entering a structure with intent to commit a crime INSIDE. Intent is what matters. The prosecution must prove you entered with criminal purpose — theft, assault, vandalism, ANY crime. Doesn’t matter if the door was unlocked, if you had a key, if you used to live there. What matters is what you INTENDED to do once inside. Domestic burglary is the most common type we see in Flemington: ex-partners entering apartments to retrieve property after breakups. These are the MOST defensible burglary cases in New Jersey because proving “criminal intent” becomes nearly impossible when you’re retrieving your own Xbox, clothing, furniture, belongings the other person is withholding. Defenses that actually work: Claim of right — you entered to retrieve YOUR property, not steal someone else’s. Consent — you had permission or implied consent because you lived there, had a key, and the owner never formally revoked your access. Lack of intent — you entered to talk or reconcile, not to commit a crime inside. Mistaken entry — wrong apartment, intoxication negated your ability to form specific intent. Here’s what the prosecution has to prove beyond reasonable doubt: (1) You entered a structure. (2) The entry was unlawful meaning you had no permission. (3) You INTENDED to commit a crime inside at the time you entered. Element three is where these cases collapse. If you lived there six months ago, had a key, were retrieving your property — how does the prosecutor prove criminal intent beyond reasonable doubt? They can’t. Unless you talked to the police and confessed. Your biggest mistake: Explaining to police “I just wanted my Xbox back.” You just confessed to intent to commit theft. Constitutional principle we learned from Dershowitz: silence isn’t guilt, but confession IS.

Third-Degree vs Second-Degree

What’s the difference? Third-degree burglary: 3-5 years state prison. Entering a structure when no one is home, or entering a non-dwelling structure. Second-degree burglary: 5-10 years state prison, NO presumption of non-incarceration. Entering a dwelling while someone is present OR entering while armed with a weapon. “Dwelling” under New Jersey law means apartment, house, mobile home, ANY place where people sleep. If your ex-girlfriend was home when you entered her apartment: prosecutors charge second-degree automatically. If you had a screwdriver (to remove your TV from the wall), a flashlight (prosecutors argue it’s a potential weapon), anything that could be construed as a weapon: they argue armed burglary, second-degree. Time of entry matters more than you think: entering at 2am creates the inference of nefarious intent. Prosecutors argue “Why would he enter at 2am unless he was trying to avoid detection while committing a crime?” The difference between probation and prison hinges on three questions: Was the victim home at the time of entry? Did you have anything that could be characterized as a weapon? Did you make any threats or use any force? Most Flemington domestic burglary cases are charged as third-degree. First offense. Presumption of non-incarceration meaning probation, not prison. But if prosecutors prove you were armed OR the victim was present in the dwelling, that presumption vanishes and prison becomes likely.

Defenses That Work in Flemington

How do you beat this? Five defenses that actually work in Flemington burglary cases: Claim of right. You entered to retrieve YOUR property. New Jersey law recognizes this defense — if you genuinely believed the property was yours and you had a right to retrieve it, there’s no criminal intent. Prosecution has to prove you DIDN’T have a claim of right, which is nearly impossible when it’s your Xbox, your clothes, your furniture. Consent. You had permission or implied permission to be there. You lived in that apartment six months ago. You had a key. The owner never demanded the key back, never told you to stay away, never revoked your access. That’s implied consent, and prosecutors struggle to prove otherwise. Lack of intent. You entered to talk, to reconcile, to discuss the breakup — not to commit a crime. This defense requires you didn’t already confess to police that you were “retrieving property.” Mistaken entry. Wrong apartment. You were intoxicated and thought it was your friend’s place. Intoxication can negate the specific intent requirement for burglary. Police misconduct. Did police violate the Fourth Amendment during the search or arrest? Was your confession coerced? Did they fail to Mirandize you? Exclusionary rule suppresses illegally obtained evidence, and without evidence, the case collapses. Flemington-specific advantage: If the prosecutor agrees to downgrade the burglary charge to criminal trespassing (N.J.S.A. 2C:18-3), your case moves from Hunterdon County Superior Court to Flemington Municipal Court. Trespassing is a disorderly persons offense, not an indictable offense. No state prison exposure. Much easier to expunge later. In plea negotiations, the prosecutor typically offers third-degree burglary with probation. The alternative: go to trial with a “claim of right” defense. Juries sympathize with “I just wanted my property back” when it’s a domestic dispute. PTI (Pretrial Intervention) is theoretically available for third-degree burglary if it’s your first offense. But Hunterdon County prosecutors deny PTI applications for domestic burglary more often than the state average because the victim (your ex) opposes it and prosecutors give victims significant weight in PTI approval decisions, which means even if you meet all the technical eligibility requirements for PTI — first offense, non-violent crime, willing to complete 6-18 months of supervision, willing to pay the fees and complete community service — the prosecutor can still reject your application based solely on victim opposition and there’s very little you can do about it except appeal to the Superior Court judge which takes another 60 days and rarely succeeds in Hunterdon County where judges tend to defer to prosecutors on PTI decisions. Average case timeline in Flemington from arrest to resolution: four to eight months, but that assumes you’re not fighting a second-degree charge or going to trial, because if you’re charged with second-degree burglary (victim was home or you had a weapon) and you reject the plea offer and demand a trial, you’re looking at 12-18 months minimum before you see a jury, and during that entire time you’re living under the conditions of release which typically include GPS monitoring if the victim lives in the same town, no-contact orders that prevent you from going anywhere near your ex’s apartment or workplace which can be a problem if you live in a small town like Flemington where everyone shops at the same grocery store and eats at the same restaurants, weekly check-ins with pretrial services, random drug testing even though this has nothing to do with drugs, and if you violate any single condition — miss one check-in, test positive for marijuana even though New Jersey legalized it, accidentally run into your ex at the pharmacy — you’re back in custody immediately and the prosecutor will argue at the detention hearing that you’re a danger to the community and should be held without bail until trial.

You got arrested for burglary in Flemington. Your ex won’t return your property. You walked into her apartment to get it. Now you’re facing 3-5 years in state prison. Arraignment is in 48 hours. The prosecutor is building the case while you’re reading this. Your next move: Talk to someone who’s defended your exact situation in Flemington Superior Court. We know the prosecutors. Know the judges. Know what defenses work. Call 212-300-5196.