I have been hired as an intern at a very lucrative financial firm and one of the employment questions is "Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offense, pleaded no contest to charges or agreed to enter in a pre-trial diversion or similar program in lieu of a criminal prosecution for any crime other than a minor traffic violation?" How should I answer? I plead guilty to receiving stolen property.
Mark M CheserDUI / DWI AttorneyUnion, NJNJ licensed ·
Receiving Stolen Property, 2C:20-7 comes under the comprehensive theft statutes of the 2C code and is graded by 2C:20-2. If the amount of the theft was under $200 it was a disorderly persons offense. Or if the original charged amount was greater but the receiving charge was downgraded and heard in Municipal Court or if it was a downgraded to a disorderly persons offense in Superior Court it is still a disorderly charge. In most States a "crime" is an offense for which you could be sentenced jail for 365 days or more. I believe this is the Federal Rule as well. In New Jersey a "crime" is any offense for which you could be sentenced to more than 6 months in jail, 2C:1-4. Since a disorderly persons offense has a maximum 6 month jail cap, it is not a crime by definition in New Jersey. So technically you were not convicted of a crime. The arrest and conviction is on your record though and can be found by an employer. Although you are answering correctly they may not agree. The smarter move is to expunge the record if 5 years has passed since the last of the sentence. Then there would be no question because you would have a Court Order allowing you to say "no" even if asked if you were ever arrested, which some other employers ask. Also the record would be erased so most private firms would not find it on a background check. Call with more information and I'll give a more detailed answer. 908-687-6650
Receiving stolen property is a criminal offense in New Jersey. It is similar to what most states call misdemeanors. Depending how long ago you were convicted, you may want to consider expunging the record, which would allow you to answer the question in the negative.
In New Jersey, by statute, a "disorderly persons offense" IS NOT considered a crime. However, as my colleague noted, you might have plead guilty to a felony, which IS a crime. You need to determine exactly what the disposition of your original offense was in order to correctly answer this question.
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