Can I be pressed with charges regarding overheated text message exchanges?
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Can I be pressed with charges regarding overheated text message exchanges?
My ex-girlfriend and I both exchanged foul language at each other. Mine was
worse. She wants to press charges against me. Can she? Will she win? No threats, no confrontations, no physical abuse.
Asked on May 26, 2018 under Criminal Law, New Jersey
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
It depends on how many messages, how "foul" they were, etc., but it possible that you could face charges. Under New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 2C:33-4), it is the disorderly persons offense (the least serious type of crime) of "harassment" if someone "a. Makes, or causes to be made, a communication or communications . . . at extremely inconvenient hours, or in offensively coarse language, or any other manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm;"
So a series of communications, or communications in sufficiently alarming or offense language, could result in charges.
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