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COURT ISSUES RESTRAINTS ON WORK ON LIBYAN ENGLEWOOD PROPERTY
"The City of Englewood has won a partial victory in its effort to stop construction at the Libyan-owned residential property that was to be a site for Col. Muammar Qaddafi to pitch his Bedouin tent during a U.S. visit. Bergen County Chancery Judge Peter Doyne on Monday granted a temporary restraining order against exterior work on the property in light of Englewood's claims of site violations on the project. Qaddafi's plans to stay at the five-acre estate owned by Libya's mission to the U.N. caused a furor, with local congressman Stephen Rothman asking the State Department and the White House to restrict Qaddafi to New York City during his visit. Gov. Jon Corzine stated that Qaddafi is unwelcome in New Jersey. The Libyan government eventually cancelled plans to use the property."

TAX APPEAL BAN ON ATLANTIC CITY FIRM STAYED PENDING HIGH COURT REVIEW
"The New Jersey Supreme Court granted a stay on Tuesday that will allow a law firm to keep almost 200 Atlantic City property owners as clients in 2009 tax appeals pending a ruling on whether the representations are ethical. The stay, granted by Justice Helen Hoens, is a victory for Miller, Gallagher & Grimley of Atlantic City, which had been ordered by the state Tax Court to bow out of the cases because the firm represented the city in substantially similar matters two years ago. The firm argued that the representations are ethical because none of the properties subject to the current appeals were in dispute when it defended the city in such cases as recently as 2007. Although Tuesday's order doesn't say whether the full Court will hear the firm's appeal, it does give Miller Gallagher an opportunity to remain counsel for at least the short term."

PRO SE MURDER DEFENDANT, ON LAM FOR 18 YEARS, WINS CONVICTION REVERSAL
"It took police 18 years to find Brian Wilson and arrest him for a murder in Atlantic City and three trials to convict him. Now there will be a fourth. A New Jersey appeals court reversed Wilson's conviction on Tuesday, acting in part on a pro se argument that the prosecutor failed to turn over evidence the defense could have used to impeach witnesses. The trial judge also erred when he didn't allow the jury to consider a verdict of manslaughter along with murder, the court said in State v. Wilson, A-4588, a case eluding closure 25 years after the crime and two years after Wilson was sentenced to 35 years in prison."

APPEAL TO DECIDE LEVEL OF FORCE NEEDED TO CONVICT FOR CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONTACT
"A state appeals court has agreed to consider whether New Jersey needs a better jury instruction on criminal sexual contact, one that makes clear to jurors the quantum of physical force or coercion needed to convict a defendant of the fourth-degree crime. The interlocutory appeal in an Essex County prosecution has statewide ramifications, since it challenges not only the grand jury charge in the case, State v. Triestman, but also the Model Jury Charge for N.J.S.A. 2C:14-3b. Defense lawyer Kevin Orr contends the trial judge improperly held that criminal sexual contact does not require proof of physical force beyond the minimum amount of physical force required to establish sexual contact ? essentially writing the word "criminal" out of the statute."

THIRD CIRCUIT PANEL UPHOLDS ONLINE GAMBLING BAN
"Internet gambling proponents suffered a major setback Tuesday when the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to strike down a 2006 law in which Congress banned all Internet gambling transactions that would be illegal in the gambler's state. A unanimous three-judge panel, in Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association v. Attorney General, rejected arguments that the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act should be declared void for vagueness. Lawyers for the gaming interests focused on the statute's use of the phrase 'unlawful Internet gambling,' which, they argued, lacks any "ascertainable and workable definition." But the judges found the statute cannot be deemed impermissibly vague in all its applications because several states prohibit all gambling activity or specifically ban Internet gambling."

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