Court Opinion

ID: 9928037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-01-30 18:09:19.493054+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:47:56.700997
License: Public Domain

People v Williams (2024 NY Slip Op 00386)

People v Williams

2024 NY Slip Op 00386

Decided on January 30, 2024

Appellate Division, First Department

Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.

This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided and Entered: January 30, 2024

Before: Webber, J.P., Friedman, González, Shulman, Pitt-Burke, JJ. 

Ind. No. 1500/18 Appeal No. 1537 Case No. 2021-04543 

[*1]The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
vKeylester Williams, Defendant-Appellant.

Jenay Nurse Guilford, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Shaina R. Watrous of counsel), for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (T. Charles Won of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Raymond L. Bruce, J.), entered on or about November 19, 2021, which adjudicated defendant a level two sexually violent offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (Correction Law art 6-C), unanimously modified, on the law, to the extent of reducing the adjudication from level two to level one, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.
The court should not have assessed 10 points under risk factor 12 for failure to accept responsibility. Defendant's denials of guilt were made at the time his appeal from his underlying convictions were pending. Requiring defendant to accept responsibility could potentially result in his admissions being used against him in any retrial, violating his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination (see generally People v Krull, 208
AD3d 163 [1st Dept 2022], appeal dismissed 39 NY3d 1093 [2023]). Accordingly, defendant should have been assessed 70 points, rendering him a risk level one offender.THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER
OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.
ENTERED: January 30, 2024