Makes it a class E felony for a sex offender to submit fraudulent information regarding his or her identity or residence when registering or verifying

4 Co-sponsors

• Joseph P. Addabbo Jr.
• Tony Avella
• Martin Malavé Dilan
• John L. Sampson

BILL NUMBER:S3532

Title of bill

An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the penalty for a sex offender submitting fraudulent information respecting his or her identity or residence or both, when registering or verifying such information pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act

Purpose

Adds a new section to Megan's Law, which creates a penalty for offering false information when registering as a sex offender.

Summary of provisions

Section 1: section 168-w of the Correction Law is relettered section 166-x and a new section 168-w is added. Under the new section 168-w, a sex offender who is required to register under Megan's Law and submits, with fraudulent intent, false information respecting his/her identity, residence or both is guilty of an "E" felony.

Existing law

Currently, Megan's Law only provides a penalty for fail- ure to register (section 168-t of the Correction Law). The first offense is an "A" misdemeanor and the second or subsequent offense is a "0" felony. This legislation would create the specific offense of offering a false statement when registering.

Justification

In Monroe County, a sex offender required to register under Megan's Law, circumvented the law by giving a false address to the registry.

The man who failed to properly register had been previously convicted of raping a Rochester girl and served three years in prison for his offense. When released from prison, he was given the highest risk rating possible. He first registered with the sex offender registry in 1996 when he was released from prison. It was not discovered that he had intentionally deceived law enforcement personnel and had broken the law until 2001, when his renewal form was returned as undeliverable after it was sent to the wrong address.

The object of Megan's law is to protect public safety by insuring that people in a neighborhood or community where a sex offender resides after imprisonment are notified of the potential risk such person poses to them or their children. Also, the registry created under Megan's Law insures that law enforcement personnel may have dependable resources that allows them to locate all convicted sex offenders in a region. Without accurate information being given to the registry, the law becomes toothless and unenforceable.

In the case cited above, the sex offender was able to live in a communi- ty for 5 years without neighbors or the local law enforcement being notified of the heightened risk. Luckily no harm resulted while his whereabouts were unknown. However, this is a potentially dangerous situ- ation which should not be tolerated and should be punishable.

In charging the sex offender, the prosecutor in Monroe County had to rely on various statutes outside of the registry statute such as falsi- fying business records and offering a false instrument for filing. Although the sex offender was charged with a failure to register under Megan's Law, the first offense as provided by the statute is only an "A" misdemeanor.

Therefore, this legislation would insure that a specific offense is created within the Corrections Law to deal with the offering of false information when registering under Megan's Law and insure that the offender is appropriately punished as a felon.

Legislative history

2003-2004: S.120-A - Passed Senate 2005-2006: S.970 - Passed Senate 2007-2008: S.274 - Passed Senate 2009-2010: S.794 - Referred to Crime Victims, Crime & Corrections 2011-2012: S.1927 - Passed Senate

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to any information submitted by a sex offender after its effective date.