New Jersey Supreme Court Holds Stealing Documents to Support Discrimination Claims Can Be Prosecuted as Theft

In State v. Saavedra (A-68-13, June 23, 2015), the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the criminal indictment of a public sector employee who stole confidential documents to support her discrimination and retaliation claims. As we discussed in our January 23, 2014 blog post and February 2014 issue of the New Jersey eAuthority, the employee was criminally charged with official misconduct and theft for taking highly confidential documents (including student records) belonging to her employer, and she countered by claiming she did so to support her employment discrimination lawsuit. She was indicted by a grand jury, and the Appellate Division upheld the indictment, holding that “an employee’s removal of documents from his or her employer for use in a suit” is not always or automatically lawful, whether in a civil or criminal case. In affirming the Appellate Division, the New Jersey Supreme Court rejected the defendant’s argument that Quinlan v. Curtiss-Wright, 204 N.J. 239 (2010) (affording New Jersey employees certain rights to take company documents to support discrimination claims) automatically immunized her from criminal prosecution; the court held, however, that she could assert a defense of “claim of right” to the documents at trial.