Is this extortion? What are my rights

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

Ok, to start off I had this boyfriend I was with for the last three years. He was in college so I let him live with me for free. He has not contributed towards anything. The only thing he did was put the electric bill in his name since I owed them a back balance. Recently he graduated and then got a job, as soon as he was hired he moved out. Then I lost my job and things got kind of hard financially. The electric bill ended up getting up to $1200. At one point after he moved out he told me that he was going to talk to NJ welfare to see if they can pay it under their emergency assistance program. They gave him the runaround for a while. While this was going on he said that if they wouldn't pay it that he would, since he is making close to $1000 per week and really doesn't have many bills. All of a sudden he dumped me, and then he told me that he was not going to pay the electric and that I had no choice but to either pay half of it almost immediately, or he would have it shut off. I talked to my Dad and he told me to not pay it, he said if I pay it then he was under no obligation to keep the electric on, and basically I would end up losing money. He told me to get the electric balance under my name straightened out and transfer it so I could have control. So that's what I did, he was removed from the lease since he voluntarily abandoned the apartment (left back in the beginning of september). The electric is now in my name with a $0 balance, and his account is still at $1200. He called me and told me that something bad is going to happen to me if I don't pay it, he wouldn't say specifically. I asked him "are you threatening me?" and he said no. I then went into the other room and put the phone on speaker, and I instructed my friend to listen to the conversation. While listening he said "I have a card that I can play that you don't know about, and you have no idea how serious it is. You can either pay for half of the bill or the law is going to come after you." At that point I actually asked him to clarify what he was saying so this is how it went

Me: So I just want to get this straight, you are saying that either I pay you, or something bad is going to happen to me
Him: Yes
Me: Ok, so basically you are trying to blackmail me
Him: This is not blackmail
Me: well that's what is sounds like to me, either pay you or suffer the consequences

I read the following law:
18 U.S.C. S 1951(b)(2)

I'm not sure if this is classified and extortion or blackmail. What should I do next, should I call the police and file a complaint, I can't afford a lawyer.

If by "bad" he means that he will take you to small claims court or report you to the utility or some such action, then this is not criminal. If he is trying to extort money or sex from you in exchange for his taking care of the bill, that is another issue.

And the USC will not generally apply here as extortion is also covered under state law. It is not unlawful to threaten to report someone if they do not take care of their legal obligation. His threat about something "bad" happening appears to be too vague to constitute any kind of crime.

Right now I don't believe you have any crime or civil tort. But, you can call the local police and see what they say. I suspect that there is no crime here.

He says that he has evidence against me and that I will be arrested unless I pay him the money. I just had a phone conversation with him that I recorded, and NJ is a one party consent state so it's legal, on top of that I also had a witness in the room who was listening to the call as well. He admitted over and over again that if I pay him the money, he will return any evidence he has against me. If I don't pay, he said this evidence will be turned over. It's funny, he literally agreed for us to meet next week and exchange the money for the evidence. So I guess right now I would go to the police and let them read all the text messages and listen to the recording, and I suppose they will want to set up some sort of a meeting where they can catch him in the act and arrest him. And by the way, i'm not a criminal and I honestly do not have any idea what so called "evidence" he has against me, but it doesn't change the fact that he is trying to extort me by utilizing fear of arrest.

I actually have another question if anyone knows. Let's just say that he were to really have some evidence against me that could incriminate me in some way (even though I can't think of what it would be). Let's say that the police were to do their thing and he gets caught in the act. When that happens, obviously this "evidence" would be collected by them. Can this evidence then be used against me anyway, or is it considered inadmissable because it was used a leverage to extort money from me?

If the gist of his "threat" is that you either make good on the bill or he ges to the police with proof that you committed some fraud that stuck him with the bill, I doubt that is going to be extortion. But, it all depends on the details of what is said.

Understand that if you do go to the police with this, that they will almost certainly find out what it is he has evidence of. If it is something serious, you may want to think twice about this. Going to the police with the extortion allegation does not make you immune from prosecution for any crime YOU have committed that they uncover in the course of this. So, yes, they CAN use this evidence against you.

Since you seem inclined to do so anyway, go ahead and call the police and report the incident and let them take it where it might go.

I just spoke with him. I don't know what he thinks he has but I just want to be done with it. So I told him that I will give him the money, but it has to be done this way. I will meet with him and we will exchange the money for the "evidence" at the same time. I am going to do it this way because it's just easier to bite the bullet and get this overwith, and it's the only way that i will be sure to get back from him whatever he has, even though I still can't think of what he has on me anyway.

Guitarmonster said:

I just spoke with him. I don't know what he thinks he has but I just want to be done with it. So I told him that I will give him the money, but it has to be done this way. I will meet with him and we will exchange the money for the "evidence" at the same time. I am going to do it this way because it's just easier to bite the bullet and get this overwith, and it's the only way that i will be sure to get back from him whatever he has, even though I still can't think of what he has on me anyway.

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if you haven't done anything wrong, then why are earth are you playing along??????

I don't know. Maybe he does have something. Maybe I made some mistake that was illegal in the past and I just don't remember. I am a law abiding citizen, but at the same time we all make mistakes. All I know is he sounds pretty convincing. Anyhow I can write him a check and then if he says "ha ha, I had nothing" then I just go to my bank and have them put a stop payment on the check. If he pushes things further with me, I can just say that I was coerced, I made the payment under duress.

I'm starting to not worry so much anymore, because he keeps calling me and every time I talk with him, he sounds like he is losing control more and more. He continually sounds more and more unsure of what he has.

It looks like I can just walk away from this.

Well today I got a restraining order against him. On top of that an investigator from the Camden County Prosecutor's office took a statement from me. I have an appointment tomorrow morning with a detective to present all the emails, text messages, and telephone recordings. The prosecutor's office said that they have enough evidence against him to prosecute, and it will be very unlikely that he will be able to defend himself. He incriminated himself over and over again over the phone, over email, and through text messaging. At this point he can be convicted under a second degree crime, which can result in a 5-10 year sentence.

I gotta say one thing, New Jersey does not f*ck around when it comes to crimes like this. Oh and based on the last few emails I got from him, he basically in so many words admitted that he doesn't have anything and he was only bluffing. Unfortunately for him the guy at the prosecutor's office said it doesn't matter if he was bluffing.