State of New Jersey v. Edward M. Knox, A-1840-23

Defendant Edward Knox was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact for an incident in which he posed as a termite inspector, entered C.S.'s home, made sexually suggestive comments, and touched her inappropriately before she forced him to leave at gunpoint.
Knox was acquitted of burglary and third-degree sexual assault charges; the remaining conviction carried a sentence of three years' probation, no contact with the victim, restitution, and credit for time served.
Pretrial, the State moved to admit under N.J.R.E. 404(b) testimony from two other women who encountered Knox during home estimate visits and reported inappropriate sexual comments, though no physical contact.
The trial court allowed the 404(b) testimony, finding it relevant to defendant’s motive, intent, and absence of mistake, as defendant claimed the incident was a misunderstanding.
Defendant appealed, arguing the prior incidents were too dissimilar and unduly prejudicial compared to their modest probative value.

Issue	State's Argument	Knox's Argument	Held
Admission of 404(b) prior acts evidence	Shows motive, intent, plan, absence of mistake; highly probative of sexual gratification	Incidents too dissimilar; no physical contact; testimony is unduly prejudicial; propensity	Evidence admissible under Cofield test
Relevance of prior acts to present charges	Incidents showed a pattern of entering homes under business pretense for sexual purpose	Legitimate entry in prior cases; only comments, no touching, no relevance to burglary/assault	Sufficiently similar for relevance
Similarity and timeliness of prior acts	Similar conduct (making sexual comments while in homes for business) and close in time	False pretenses and physical contact missing in prior acts	Similar enough, especially as one act was recent
Prejudice vs. probative value balancing	State lacked alternative proof of motive/intent; needed to show sexual purpose	Testimony was minimally relevant and risked propensity bias	Probative value outweighed prejudice

State v. Cofield, 127 N.J. 328 (created four-prong test for admitting other-acts evidence)
State v. Stevens, 115 N.J. 289 (upheld admission of prior bad acts to show sexual motive/intent)
State v. Marrero, 148 N.J. 469 (deference to trial court's discretion on evidentiary rulings)
State v. Williams, 190 N.J. 114 (Cofield similarity prong not always required)
State v. Covell, 157 N.J. 554 (motive and intent broaden admissibility of prior acts evidence)
State v. Rose, 206 N.J. 141 (admissibility of prior acts for issues other than propensity)
State v. Green, 236 N.J. 71 (sensitive review of other-crimes evidence)