BILL NUMBER:  S794

 TITLE OF BILL :
An act to amend the correction law, in relation to the penalty for a
sex offender submitting fraudulent information respecting his or her
identity or residence or both, when registering or verifying such
information pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act


 PURPOSE :
Adds a new section to Megan's Law, which creates a penalty for
offering false information when registering as a sex offender.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :
Section 1: section 168-w of the Correction Law is relettered section
168-x and a new section 168-w is added. Under the new section 168-w, a
sex offender who is required to register under Megan's Law and
submits, with fraudulent intent, false information respecting his/her
identity, residence or both is guilty of an "E" felony.

 EXISTING LAW :
Currently, Megan's Law only provides a penalty for failure to register
(section 168-t of the Correction Law). The first offense is an "A"
misdemeanor and the second or subsequent offense is a "D" felony. This
legislation would create the specific offense of offering a false
statement when registering
              

 JUSTIFICATION :
In Monroe County, a sex offender required to register under Megan's
Law, circumvented the law by giving a false address to the registry.

The man who failed to properly register had been previously convicted
of raping a Rochester girl and served three years in prison for his
offense. When released from prison, he was given the highest risk
rating possible. He first registered with the sex offender registry in
1996 when he was released from prison. It was not discovered that he
had intentionally deceived law enforcement personnel and had broken
the law until 2001, when his renewal form was returned as
undeliverable after it was sent to the wrong address.

The object of Megan's law is to protect public safety by insuring that
people in a neighborhood or community where a sex offender resides
after imprisonment are notified of the potential risk such person
poses to them or their children. Also, the registry created under
Megan's Law insures that law enforcement personnel may have dependable
resources that allows them to locate all convicted sex offenders in a
region. Without accurate information being given to the registry, the
law becomes toothless and unenforceable.

In the case cited above, the sex offender was able to live in a
community for 5 years without neighbors or the local law enforcement
being notified of the heightened risk. Luckily no harm resulted while
his whereabouts were unknown. However, this is a potentially dangerous
situation which should not be tolerated and should be punishable.

In charging the sex offender, the prosecutor in Monroe County had to
rely on various statutes outside of the registry statute such as
falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for
filing. Although the sex offender was charged with a failure to
register under Megan's Law, the first offense as provided by the
statute is only an "A" misdemeanor.

Therefore, this legislation would insure that a specific offense is
created within the Corrections Law to deal with the offering of false
information when registering under Megan's Law and insure that the
offender is appropriately punished as a felon.
 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
2003-2004: S.120-A - Passed Senate
2005-2006: S.970 - Passed Senate
2007-2008: Passed Senate

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :
None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to any
information submitted by a sex offender after its effective date.