THE PROBATION CONDITION REQUIRING DEFENDANT TO SUPPORT DEPENDENTS AND MEET FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES WAS NOT REASONABLY RELATED TO DEFENDANT’S REHABILITATION; DEFENDANT WAS CONVICTED OF ASSAULT (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, striking the probation condition requiring defendant to “support dependents and meet other family responsibilities’, determined the condition was not reasonably related to the defendant’s rehabilitation. Defendant was convicted of assault:
Pursuant to Penal Law § 65.10(1), the conditions of probation “shall be such as the court, in its discretion, deems reasonably necessary to insure that the defendant will lead a law-abiding life or assist him [or her] to do so” … . “In Penal Law § 65.10(2), the Legislature set forth a list of conditions intended to be rehabilitative” … , including the condition that a defendant “[s]upport his [or her] dependents and meet other family responsibilities” (Penal Law § 65.10[2][f]). “The statute ‘quite clearly restricts probation conditions to those reasonably related to a defendant’s rehabilitation'” … . All enumerated probation conditions under Penal Law 65.10 must be “tailored to the particular defendant’s case” … .
Under the circumstances of this case, the Supreme Court improperly imposed Condition No. 14. This condition was “not individually tailored in relation to the offense and therefore, was not reasonably related to the defendant’s rehabilitation or necessary to insure that he will lead a law-abiding life” … . People v Aldea, 2025 NY Slip Op 06716, Second Dept 12-3-25
Practice Point: Courts are striking the probation condition requiring defendant to support dependents when it is not related to the underlying offense, assault in this case.
