PEOPLE v. HUBBARD (2024)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Raymond L. Bruce, J.), entered on or about August 18, 2022, which adjudicated defendant a level one sex offender pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration Act (Correction Law art 6–C), unanimously affirmed.

A comparison of the elements of defendant's federal conviction of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion (18 USC §§ 1591[a], 1594[c]) with New York's sex trafficking statute (Penal Law § 230.34[5]), reveals several “points of overlap” where both offenses cover acting in agreement with another or an enterprise to induce an individual into engaging in prostitution activity through the use of force or the fear of the use of force, committed by the actor or another (Matter of North v. Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders of State of N.Y., 8 N.Y.3d 745, 753, 840 N.Y.S.2d 307, 871 N.E.2d 1133 [2007]).  Although the federal offense criminalizes conduct affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a review of defendant's conduct underlying her conviction shows that it falls “within the scope of the New York offense” (id.).  Here, defendant helped the codefendant and the prostitution enterprise by driving the victim to “prostitution appointments” and making and posting internet ads to promote the enterprise's “prostitution services.”  Accordingly, the conduct underlying defendant's federal case was also covered by the New York's sex trafficking statute, rendering her foreign conviction a registerable offense (see North, 8 N.Y.3d at 753, 840 N.Y.S.2d 307, 871 N.E.2d 1133;  see also People v. Luck, 212 A.D.3d 535, 180 N.Y.S.3d 537 [1st Dept. 2023], lv denied 39 N.Y.3d 915, 2023 WL 3960566 [2023]).  Therefore, the court correctly found that defendant's federal conviction is a registrable offense under SORA's essential elements test (see Matter of North, 8 N.Y.3d at 753, 840 N.Y.S.2d 307, 871 N.E.2d 1133;  Correction Law §§ 168–a[2][a][i];  [d][i]).