Opinion ID: 2056690
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: District Court's Findings Regarding Letalien's Conviction

Text: [¶ 2] The District Court found that on August 19, 1996, Eric S. Letalien pleaded guilty to gross sexual assault against a thirteen-year-old girl (Class A), 17-A M.R.S.A. § 253(1)(B) (Supp.1993), and on August 30, 1996, was sentenced to four years' incarceration with all but twenty months suspended, and four years' probation. [1] He was nineteen years old at the time of the offense. The District Court received the testimony of a clinical psychologist who performed a sex offender risk assessment on Letalien, and who concluded that Letalien presents the lowest possible risk of reoffending. [¶ 3] The District Court found that because Letalien was convicted of gross sexual assault against a victim who was under the age of sixteen, he was subject to Maine's sex offender registration requirements. The District Court determined: Defendant's conviction was in 1996, and thus the version of the sex offender registration statute in effect at the time of his conviction was enacted in 1995, effective in 1996 [the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA of 1995)]. P.L. 1995, ch. 680, § 13 (effective July 4, 1996) (codified at 34-A M.R.S.A. §§ 11101-11144 (Supp.1996)). Section 4 of P.L. 1995, ch. 680, provided that:  As part of a sentence, the court shall order every natural person who is a convicted sex offender ... to satisfy all requirements set forth in the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. [2] (Effective July 4, 1996) (codified at 17-A M.R.S.A. § 1152(2-C) (Supp.1996)) (emphasis added). SORNA of 1995 defined [s]ex offender to mean an individual convicted of gross sexual assault if the victim had not in fact attained 16 years of age at the time of the crime or an individual found not criminally responsible for committing gross sexual assault by reason of mental disease or defect if the victim had not in fact attained 16 years of age at the time of the crime. 34-A M.R.S.A. § 11103(5) (Supp.1996).