In a criminal case, the state, through a prosecutor, initiates the suit, while in a civil case the victim brings the suit. Persons convicted of a crime may be incarcerated, fined, or both. Criminal defense attorneys represent clients who have been accused of committing a crime, and defend their rights at each stage of a misdemeanor or felony case -- from an arrest to an appeal after conviction. Criminal defense attorneys may be hired privately or provided by the government (called "public defenders").
Whitehouse is a village in Readington Township, New Jersey along the Jersey Turnpike, just west of Mechanicsville. In 1722, Abraham Van Horn purchased 490 acres in Readington along the Rockaway Creek. He built a grist mill and saw mill here. Around 1750, he built a white plastered wall tavern on the creek where the Jersey Turnpike crossed (this is now the corner of Washington Street and US 22). The tavern began to be referred to as the "White House" by travellers. The village, which sprang up to the east of the tavern also carried this name. Stones from the original tavern can be seen along the retaining wall of the DAR cemetery, where the tavern once stood. The village of White House stretched along the Jersey Turnpike (now Route 22 and Old Route 28), which was the main street. The village included taverns, stores, grist mills, an academy, a Dutch Reformed Church and numerous houses. The nearby Whitehouse Station, which also indirectly took the name from the tavern, was not built up until 1848 when an extension of the Somerville and Easton Railroad was built.