CRITERIA FOR RECLASSIFICATION OF THE SORA RISK-LEVEL EXPLAINED (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department explained the criteria for an application for risk-level reclassification under SORA:

Turning to the August 2019 order denying defendant’s application for reclassification, it was his burden “to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the requested modification [was] warranted, and the trial court’s determination will not be disturbed absent an abuse of discretion” … . County Court correctly rejected defendant’s efforts to relitigate various issues addressed in the 2018 order, as an application for reclassification is not “a vehicle for reviewing whether [a] defendant’s circumstances were properly analyzed in the first instance to arrive at his [or her] risk level” … . The sole new development pointed to by defendant was his evaluation by a psychiatrist after the issuance of the 2018 order, and he provided a letter in which the psychiatrist made preliminary findings that defendant neither met the diagnostic criteria for pedophilia nor merited a risk level three classification. The psychiatrist’s final report was not submitted for review, however, and the limited findings offered in the letter were rendered without a review of the raw data underlying the 2015 report and were based upon an account of defendant’s sexual history and offenses that “markedly differ[ed]” from the one referenced in it. The Board accordingly opposed a modification on the ground that defendant had not met his burden of proof and, under the circumstances presented, County Court did not abuse its discretion in agreeing with that assessment … . People v Stein, 2021 NY Slip Op 03086, Third Dept 5-13-21