THE CRITERIA FOR “A CONTINUING COURSE OF SEXUAL CONTACT” WERE NOT MET; DEFENDANT’S SORA RISK-LEVEL REDUCED TO LEVEL ONE (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, reducing defendant’s SORA risk-level assessment to level one, determined the People did not demonstrate “a continuing course of sexual contact:“
The Guidelines provide, in part, regarding risk factor 4, that “an offender has engaged in a continuing course of sexual contact when he [or she] engages in either (i) two or more acts of sexual contact, at least one of which is an act of sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct, anal sexual conduct, or aggravated sexual contact, which acts are separated in time by at least 24 hours, or (ii) three or more acts of sexual contact over a period of at least two weeks” … .
In this proceeding, the People failed to meet their burden of proof on risk factor 4 since they failed to establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that the two acts of sexual contact the defendant committed against the victim were separated in time by at least 24 hours … . People v Parez, 2023 NY Slip Op 05526, Second Dept 11-1-23
Practice Point: There must be 24 hours between acts of sexual contact to constitute “a continuing course of sexual contact” under the SORA risk-level guidelines; not the case here.