People v. Straker
This text of 2025 NY Slip Op 00298 (People v. Straker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
Opinion
| People v Straker |
| 2025 NY Slip Op 00298 |
| Decided on January 21, 2025 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports. |
Decided and Entered: January 21, 2025
Before: Moulton, J.P., Kapnick, Kennedy, Mendez, Pitt-Burke, JJ.
Ind. No. 1685/11 Appeal No. 56 Case No. 2018-3763
v
Michael Straker, Defendant-Appellant.
Twyla Carter, The Legal Aid Society, New York (IvÁn Pantoja of counsel), for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Kalani A. Browne of counsel), for respondent.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Raymond L. Bruce, J.), entered on or about January 3, 2024, which, after a hearing, adjudicated defendant a risk level two offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), Correctional Law Art 6-C, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court providently exercised its discretion when it declined to grant a downward departure (see People v Gillotti, 23 NY3d 841 [2014]). There is no basis for a downward departure, given the seriousness of the underlying conduct, and the danger that a reoffense by defendant would cause a high degree of harm (see People v Roldan, 140 AD3d 411 [1st Dept 2016], lv denied 28 NY3d 904 [2016]). Although the court at defendant's initial SORA hearing held that defendant had established mitigating factors warranting a downward departure from a presumptive level three assessment, it does not follow that because defendant was assessed as a presumptive level two offender at the second SORA hearing, conducted after remittitur by this Court, a downward departure to level one was required.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.
ENTERED: January 21, 2025
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