Case Name: The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Ronald Ratcliff, Appellant
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 2013-06-11
Citations: 107 A.D.3d 476
Docket Number: 
Parties: The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Ronald Ratcliff, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 107
Pages: 476–476

Head Matter:
The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Ronald Ratcliff, Appellant.
[966 NYS2d 433]

Opinion:
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Renee A. White, J.), entered on or about September 6, 2011, which adjudicated defendant a level two sexually violent offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (Correction Law art 6-C), unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The record supports the court's discretionary upward departure. "[T]he level suggested by the [risk assessment instrument] is merely presumptive and a SORA court possesses the discretion to impose a lower or higher risk level if it concludes that the factors in the RAI do not result in an appropriate designation" (People v Mingo, 12 NY3d 563, 568 n 2 [2009]; see also People v Johnson, 11 NY3d 416, 421 [2008]). Here, even though defendant was assessed the maximum amount of points under the risk factors for use of violence and sexual contact, the RAI did not adequately account for the extreme egregiousness of defendant's conduct (see e.g. People v Guasp, 95 AD3d 608 [1st Dept 2012], lv denied 19 NY3d 812 [2012]). Concur — Mazzarelli, J.P., Sweeny, Moskowitz, Manzanet-Daniels and Gische, JJ.