People v. Talluto (N.Y. 2022)

People v. Talluto, No. 98 (N.Y. 2022)

Nature of Case: In 2012, defendant was convicted in Michigan of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, a felony that required him to register as a sex offender under Michigan’s “Sex Offenders Registration Act.” In 2020, defendant relocated to New York to live near family. The Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders (Board) determined that he was required to register due to his “felony conviction which requires registration . . . in Michigan.” Based on a risk assessment, the Board recommended that County Court adjudicate him as such with no sexually violent offender designation. Defendant and the People agreed with the recommendation. However, the court concluded that the plain language of The Sex Offender Registration Act ([SORA] Correction Law § 168-a (3) (b) required it to designate defendant a sexually violent offender because he was convicted in Michigan and thus required to register under SORA’s foreign registration requirements. Although the court believed the result illogical, it concluded that any error or perceived injustice in the statute was a matter for the legislature.

The issue presented on appeal is whether section 168-a (3) (b) requires any person subject to SORA’s foreign registration requirements to be designated a sexually violent offender regardless of whether the underlying offense is violent in nature.

Holding: The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the Appellate Division, holding that SORA requires persons subject to its foreign registration requirements to be designated as “sexually violent” regardless of whether their underlying offense was violent in nature.  In so holding the Court states, “Defendant—and the many learned judges, lawyers, and legal scholars—may well be correct that subdivision (3) (b)’s foreign jurisdiction clause contains a legislative drafting error, but that does not give the courts license to ignore it.”  Assuming the provision was in error, the Court went on the call upon the legislature to remedy the error.