TRENTON — Like diamonds and taxes, job forfeiture is forever when public officials commit crimes that involve their employment. Being barred from public employment even holds when a person’s record is expunged, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in the case of a Monmouth County prosecutor’s detective who misused a computer to run a background check. “When a person...
Today the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled a public worker barred from future employment cannot be re-employed even after their record is expunged. Above, a file photo of the court.TRENTON — Like diamonds and taxes, job forfeiture is forever when public officials commit crimes that involve their employment.
Being barred from public employment even holds when a person’s record is expunged, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in the case of a Monmouth County prosecutor’s detective who misused a computer to run a background check.
“When a person is convicted of an offense that ‘involves and touches upon’ that person’s public office, the obligatory forfeiture of public employment provisions of (state law) are triggered,” Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto wrote for the majority. Those provisions say a person “shall be forever disqualified from holding any office or position of honor, trust or profit” in the state.
The former detective, identified in court papers only as D.H., worked in the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office from 1985 to 1999. In June 1999, according to the decision, a local employer asked her to conduct a criminal background check on a job applicant. The detective checked the Criminal Justice Information System and found the person had an arrest record.
After questioning by the prosecutor’s office and State Police, the detective was charged in September 1999 with a disorderly persons offense, the decision said. She pleaded guilty the following month.
Considering her “unblemished past” and agreement to give up her job, a trial judge sentenced D.H. to pay $110 in costs and penalties.
In 2008, the former detective sought to have her conviction expunged, according to court papers. A trial court granted her request, noting “the purpose of expungement is the elimination of the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction imposed upon an otherwise law-abiding citizen.” The court determined employment forfeiture was a “collateral consequence” and voided that disqualification as well. An appeals court agreed.
The state’s highest court Wednesday said D.H.’s record should be expunged, but a five-justice majority found her disqualification from public employment to be a separate matter that stands. Justice Virginia Long dissented, saying the expungement also should have wiped out the ban on public employment.
Attorney Robert Donaher said his client committed “a minor infraction.”
“She no longer has a criminal record,” he said, noting she has no plans to seek a public-sector job. “From a practical standpoint, she’s vindicated.”