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NY Sex Offender's Risk Level 3 Classification Based on Credible Information, Thus Affirmed

NY Sex Offender's Risk Level 3 Classification Based on Credible
Information, Thus Affirmed

Tercero Stafford, a New York prisoner, is serving a prison sentence for
burglary. He had prior convictions for sex offenses in New York and
Vermont, for which he was released from prison in Vermont in 1996. Vermont
had no sex offender registration law at the time. In anticipation of
Stafford's release on his current conviction, the New York Board of
Examiners of Sex Offenders convinced a New York trial court, based in part
on Stafford's Vermont conviction, to assess him to be a risk level three
sex-offender. Stafford appealed, claiming that because Vermont had no sex
offender registration law in 1996, New York state could not consider the
fact of his Vermont conviction when assessing his current risk level.

On appeal, the New York Court for the 3rd Department of its Appellate
Division found that so long as a sex offender's risk level assessment is
based on credible information, such as the fact of Stafford's prior Vermont
conviction, the classification is lawful. On that basis Stafford's appeal
was dismissed. See: People v. Stafford, 32 A.D.3d 1133 (N.Y.A.D. 3 Dept. 2006).

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Related legal case

People v. Stafford

--- N.Y.S.2d ----, 32 A.D.3d 1133, 2006 WL 2771156 (N.Y.A.D. 3 Dept.), 2006 N.Y. Slip Op. 06901

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,

v.

Tercero O. STAFFORD, Appellant.

Sept. 28, 2006.
Richard V. Manning, Parishville, for appellant.

Gary W. Miles, District Attorney, Canton (Laurie L. Paro of counsel), for respondent.


Before: CARDONA, P.J., MERCURE, SPAIN, CARPINELLO and MUGGLIN, JJ.


CARPINELLO, J.

*1 Appeal from an order of the County Court of St. Lawrence County (Rogers, J.), rendered July 7, 2005, which classified defendant as a risk level III sex offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act.

In July 1992, defendant was convicted by jury verdict of burglary in the third degree and sentenced to 2 to 4 years in prison. In October 1994, before his New York sentence expired, defendant was transported to Vermont pursuant to a detainer filed by Vermont authorities alleging that defendant engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with a minor child in that state. Defendant thereafter pleaded guilty to a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and was sentenced to a prison term aggregating at three years, to run concurrently with the New York sentence he was then serving.