SORA Can’t Be Imposed Eleven Years after Expiration of Sentence

Posted by on March 27, 2010 in Blog

In People v Gregory (2010 NY Slip Op 02608 [4th Dept 3/26/10]) the Fourth Department has held that the imposition of SORA registation requirements 11 years after the expiration of the defendant’s sentence was impproper. Although the Court rejected defendant’s contention that the six-year statute of limitations in CPLR 213 applies to this SORA classification proceeding, it concluded

that vacatur of defendant’s risk level determination is appropriate. Although Correction Law § 168-l (8) expressly provides that a failure by the court “to render a determination within the time period specified in [article 6-C] shall not affect the obligation of the sex offender to register,” we conclude that the 11-year delay is ” so outrageously arbitrary as to constitute [a] gross abuse of governmental authority’ ” (People v Wilkes, 53 AD3d 1073, 1074, lv denied 11 NY3d 710; cf. People v Sgroi, 22 Misc 3d 902, 905-[*2]906).