Bergen County Bus Driver Accused of Threatening Another Driver with Bat
By Travis Tormey posted in Assault and Threat Crimes on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
A Bergen County shuttle bus driver was arrested and charged with threatening another driver with a baseball bat, police say. Bergen County Police were contacted by the alleged victim who claimed that another driver was swinging a baseball bat at him. Police responded to the scene at the intersection of Route 4 and Forest Avenue in Teaneck. There they found the 19-year-old driver for Spanish Transportation who allegedly admitting to threatening the other driver with a bat. He was arrested and charged with terroristic threats and unlawful possession of a weapon and released with a pending court date. For additional information, please see the NJ.com article.
Terroristic threats in New Jersey is a criminal charge governed by N.J.S. 2C:12-3 which provides in pertinent part:
§ 2C:12-3. Terroristic Threats
a. A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if he threatens to commit any crime of violence with the purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience. A violation of this subsection is a crime of the second degree if it occurs during a declared period of national, State or county emergency. The actor shall be strictly liable upon proof that the crime occurred, in fact, during a declared period of national, State or county emergency. It shall not be a defense that the actor did not know that there was a declared period of emergency at the time the crime occurred.
b. A person is guilty of a crime of the third degree if he threatens to kill another with the purpose to put him in imminent fear of death under circumstances reasonably causing the victim to believe the immediacy of the threat and the likelihood that it will be carried out.