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Serving Jersey City, Hudson County & all of New Jersey · Free Consultations · Se Habla Español
Resisting arrest in Jersey City is charged under N.J.S.A. 2C:29-2(a). Purposely preventing an officer from making an arrest is a disorderly persons offense (6 months); doing so by flight is a fourth-degree crime (18 months); using or threatening force, or creating a substantial risk of injury to the officer, is a third-degree crime (3–5 years). It is not a defense that the arrest was unlawful, but the State must prove the officer announced the arrest and you knew it.
2C:29-2(a) grades resisting by conduct. Purposely preventing or attempting to prevent a law-enforcement officer from effecting an arrest is a disorderly persons offense. Doing it by flight is a fourth-degree crime. Using or threatening physical force or violence against the officer or another, or doing anything that creates a substantial risk of physical injury to anyone, is a third-degree crime. The statute expressly says it is not a defense that the officer was acting unlawfully, as long as the officer was acting under color of official authority and announced the intention to arrest — which means the case is about what you did, not whether the arrest was fair.
That makes the announcement and the ‘purposely’ element the defense. Pulling an arm away reflexively when grabbed from behind, going limp, or asking why you are being detained is not resisting, and Hudson County judges have said so. Obstruction under 2C:29-1 — interfering with an officer’s lawful function by flight, intimidation, force or physical interference — is charged alongside, as is aggravated assault on an officer when there was any contact. Body-worn cameras, mandatory for Jersey City police since 2021, show what actually happened; the complaint often does not.
Preventing arrest without flight or force · municipal court
Fourth degree · Superior Court
Third degree · 3–5 years
2C:29-1 · disorderly persons or fourth degree
2C:12-1(b)(5) · third or second degree
2C:29-2(b) · a separate page
The Journal Square pairing · both often dismissed together
When the underlying case is suppressed, resisting often follows
| Charge | Grade | Maximum | Court |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resisting arrest (2C:29-2(a)(1)) | Disorderly persons | 6 months, $1,000 | Jersey City Municipal |
| Resisting by flight (2C:29-2(a)(2)) | Fourth degree | 18 months, $10,000 | Superior Court |
| Resisting with force or risk of injury (2C:29-2(a)(3)) | Third degree | 3–5 years, $15,000 | Superior Court |
| Obstruction (2C:29-1) | Disorderly persons; fourth degree if obstructing prosecution of a crime | 6 months / 18 months | Municipal / Superior |
| Aggravated assault on an officer (2C:12-1(b)(5)) | Third degree; second if significant injury | 3–5 / 5–10 years | Superior Court |
Before body-worn cameras, a resisting complaint was the officer’s word. Since Jersey City’s department deployed them, we have had resisting and obstruction charges dismissed where the footage showed a person asking questions, pulling away from an unexpected grab, or being tackled after the arrest was complete. The Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office reviews the video before indicting, and a well-prepared presentation at that stage often ends the case or reduces it to a municipal matter.
Resisting is also the charge that survives a bad stop. When a drug or DWI stop is suppressed, prosecutors sometimes press the resisting count alone. We argue those together: the same video that shows the unlawful stop usually shows there was no purposeful resistance either.
It can be. Resisting without flight or force is a disorderly persons offense. Resisting by flight is a fourth-degree crime, and resisting with force or creating a risk of injury is a third-degree crime — both indictable and heard in Superior Court.
Yes. New Jersey law states that the unlawfulness of the arrest is not a defense, provided the officer was acting under official authority and announced the arrest. The remedy for an unlawful arrest is suppression of what followed, not a defense to resisting.
Not by itself. The State must prove you purposely prevented the arrest after the officer announced it. A reflexive movement, or a response before any announcement, does not meet that element, and body-cam usually shows which it was.
It happens often: the underlying charge fails on suppression or lack of evidence, and the State keeps the resisting count. The same video is usually the defense to both, and we address them together.
Parent practice page
Related charge
Related charge
Ibrahim & Ibrahim Law Firm
910 Bergen Ave, Suite 203
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Directions · a five-minute walk from Journal Square PATH; two blocks from the courthouse complex
