Court Agrees Client Should Not Be Subject to the Sex Offender Registration Act
In 2013, our client was convicted of second-degree kidnapping, second-degree unlawful imprisonment, and child endangerment. On the day of the offense, our client’s two co-defendants asked him for a ride to a nearby hotel. The co-defendants exited the car and returned, dragging the complainant into the car. Our client, who did not know who the complainant was and had been told she was a girlfriend of one of the co-defendants, drove away, and the complainant was told to leave the car shortly thereafter. Unbeknownst to our client, the complainant had been a prostitute working for the co-defendants.
After serving 12 years in prison, the Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders and the prosecution sought to place our client on New York’s sex offender registry. Our office argued that to do so was unconstitutional, since our client’s conduct was indisputably non-sexual, his behavior was devoid of any sexual motive or conduct, and requiring him to register as a sex offender was not rationally related to any legitimate state interest. The SORA hearing court agreed, determining that our client could not constitutionally be required to register under SORA.
Jenna Hymowitz represented our client
