IN RE: STATE of New York (2025)

Orders, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Tara A. Collins, J.), entered February 22, 2024, and March 11, 2024, which, upon a jury finding of mental abnormality within the meaning of Mental Hygiene Law § 10.03(i), and a determination made after a dispositional hearing that respondent is a dangerous sex offender requiring confinement, committed respondent to a secure treatment facility, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Petitioner State of New York proved by clear and convincing evidence that respondent has a mental abnormality as defined by Mental Hygiene Law § 10.03(i), and that he is a dangerous sex offender requiring confinement, rather than a “dangerous but typical recidivist convicted in an ordinary criminal case” (Kansas v. Crane, 534 U.S. 407, 413, 122 S.Ct. 867, 151 L.Ed.2d 856 [2002];  see also Matter of State of New York v. Frank P., 126 A.D.3d 150, 151–152, 2 N.Y.S.3d 483 [1st Dept. 2015]).  As in (Matter of State of New York v. David D., 206 A.D.3d 481, 485, 169 N.Y.S.3d 312 [1st Dept. 2022]), we find that the totality of respondent's diagnosed mental abnormalities, coupled with his history of substance abuse, psychopathic traits, lack of remorse or acceptance of his crimes, score on the risk assessment instrument administered, and lack of sex offender treatment and failure to have a viable relapse prevention plan, support the finding that respondent has more than one “condition, disease or disorder” that, together, predispose him to commit sex offenses and which will result in his having serious difficulty in controlling such conduct (Mental Hygiene Law § 10.03[i];  see Matter of State of New York v. Dennis K., 27 N.Y.3d 718, 743, 37 N.Y.S.3d 765, 59 N.E.3d 500 [2016], cert denied 580 U.S. 1023, 137 S.Ct. 579, 196 L.Ed.2d 452 [2016];  Matter of State of New York v. Richard V., 228 A.D.3d 109, 118, 210 N.Y.S.3d 52 [1st Dept. 2024]).