DEFENDANT HAD BEEN RELEASED FOR 12 YEARS WITHOUT REOFFENDING AT THE TIME OF THE SORA HEARING; DEFENDANT WAS ENTITLED TO A DOWNWARD DEPARTURE TO LEVEL ONE (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court’s SORA risk-level assessment and designating defendant a level one sex offender, the fact that defendant had not reoffended between 2004 and 2018 was a factor warranting a downward departure:
A defendant seeking a downward departure from the presumptive risk level has the initial burden of “(1) identifying, as a matter of law, an appropriate mitigating factor, namely, a factor which tends to establish a lower likelihood of reoffense or danger to the community and is of a kind, or to a degree, that is otherwise not adequately taken into account by the [SORA] Guidelines; and (2) establishing the facts in support of its existence by a preponderance of the evidence” … . …
… [T]he defendant committed a sex offense in Georgia in 2004. In the time between that crime and the SORA hearing, which was held in 2018, the defendant was at liberty for approximately 12 years without reoffending. In light of the lengthy amount of time without reoffense, we conclude that the RAI [risk assessment instrument] overstated the defendant’s risk of reoffense. People v Addison, 2022 NY Slip Op 00445, Second Dept 1-26-22