Defendant Jeffrey Walker entered into a plea agreement with the State after misappropriating health care insurance premiums from his company's employees instead of paying them to the insurance carrier. In return for defendant's plea to third-degree theft by illegal retention, N.J.S.A. 2C:20-9; and third-degree misappropriation of entrusted property, N.J.S.A. 2C:21-15 and agreement to pay restitution to his victims of $72,471.35, the State agreed to recommend five years of non-custodial probation. Defendant was then sentenced in accordance with the plea agreement.
Defendant's probation ended and the then-outstanding balance of his restitution was transferred to collections. At the time of the appeal, defendant had paid only $27,746 of the money he misappropriated, still owing $45,595.35. Defendant learned his restitution had been prorated among all the victims, and the prorated restitution owed to the victims not yet located had escheated to the State in case they were later located.
Defendant filed a post-conviction relief ("PCR") petition to return the escheated funds and pay the victims who had been located. Defendant then argued it would be in the interest of justice that his restitution obligation be deemed completed once the located victims were fully paid.
The court rejected defendant's proposal to essentially renegotiate individual restitution settlements as it emphasized the restitution amount and framework was part of a plea agreement negotiated with the State and approved by the trial court. To extinguish defendant's obligation to pay the full restitution would unjustly reward defendant for his failure to timely pay the full restitution amount within the negotiated five years. Defendant's proposal would allow him to keep some of the fruits of his offense and deprive his victims of compensation for the losses suffered. It would also run counter to the remunerative, rehabilitative, deterrence, and punitive goals of restitution. As a result, the court affirmed the trial court's denial of PCR.