Military Offense Is Not Registerable Under SORA
In 2013, our then-25-year-old client was serving in the Army in Oklahoma. In an incident in the barracks involving another military service member, who was impaired at the time by drugs or alcohol, our client drew on the service member’s face with a marker and placed his bare buttocks and genitals on the service member’s face. Our client pled guilty to the military offense of abusive sexual conduct. He was sentenced to a pay reduction, pay forfeiture, and 75 days of hard labor, and he resumed military service thereafter. After receiving a general discharge under honorable conditions, he moved to New York.
The Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders and the prosecution sought to subject our client to the Sex Offender Registration Act and place him on the registry. They contended that the military offense included “all essential elements” of New York’s offense of second-degree sexual abuse, which is a registerable offense. Appellate Advocates argued that the military conviction was not equivalent to second-degree sexual abuse, because the military offense criminalized far more conduct, including intent to “abuse, humiliate, harass, or degrade any person.” The hearing court agreed, concluding that the military conviction did not require registration under SORA.
Zachory Nowosadzki represented our client