Cases | State v. Newman, 623 A.2d 1355 (N.J. 1993) | 2018
The defendant was convicted of distribution of cocaine, sentenced to a prison term, and required to make restitution to the state to recover drug-buy money. The defendant appealed, arguing that the lower court had failed to properly evaluate his ability to pay the restitution. The appellate division affirmed the trial court’s judgment and upheld the defendant’s sentence. The defendant petitioned for certification, claiming that ordering restitution of drug-buy money was unavailable as a sentencing technique because the County Prosecutor’s Office was not a victim who had suffered a loss; that the buy money constituted an unrecoverable cost of prosecution. The Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s affirmation of the restitution order for the state’s expenditure of the drug-buy money. The Supreme Court held that although the defendant could be fined according to his pecuniary gain, absent any statutory authority defining such, the state was not a victim who had suffered loss and thus not entitled to restitution from the defendant.