An incident in New York is reigniting the debate over sex offender registration policies.
There are three levels of sex offender status in New York state. Some of those names are published publicly, and some are not. A man who was previously on the sex offender registry now stands accused of luring a minor, as well as several felonies.
The man was a level 1 sex offender, so his information was not made public like it is for higher-level offenders, which raises questions around what information about sex offenders should and shouldn’t be available to the public.
The Onondaga County sheriff’s department says on June 8 it received report of a 5-year-old girl being lured away from a playground with candy and then sexually assaulted in the woods.
Thirty-three-year-old Ryan Pontello is being charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor, and he was previously classified as a level one sex offender, or someone that is low risk to reoffend.
“The issue that happens when a level 1 sex offender reoffends and then the argument is going to be, well, maybe this wouldn't have happened if the information had been made public,” said Greg Rinckey, founding partner of Tully Rinckey.
The Sex Offender Registration Act has been in place for almost 30 years. Currently in New York state, anyone can search information on any level 2 or 3 sex offenders. But level 1 is kept out of the public listing.
Spectrum News 1 has learned that some organizations like YMCAs and school districts use a service like Raptor to check visitors for sex offender status and custody agreements. Those systems are only able to pull from publicly available information.
A statement from Raptor reads in part:
“…Raptor successfully enables its customers to perform millions of screens on individuals each year, but they are only as effective as the convicted sex offender information made available by state and local governments… While the vast majority of U.S. states make information on Level 1 offenders available to enhance our comprehensive screening processes, unfortunately, New York does not.”
“And it's a balancing act,” said Rinckey. “I mean, the person has a privacy interest, right? Not having their information made public, but the state also has an interest in protecting the state citizens.”
“Seems like there is a gap there, especially in this case, where the offense occurred across the street from a school,” said Onondaga County Sheriff Tobias Shelley.
According to the Department of Criminal Justice Services, information about level 1 offenders can be revealed by law enforcement agencies to groups with vulnerable populations related to the offense. There has been a program in place in New York for 15 years that provides alerts by email, text, fax or phone if a level 2 or 3 sex offender moves to or from a specific community.
According to Rinckey, sex offender level is determined not by law enforcement, but by a judge during a registration hearing. Level 1 sex offenders are kept on the registry for 20 years, and, of course, law enforcement agencies have access to that list.