People v Jones, 2023 NY Slip Op 02837 [216 AD3d 579]

May 25, 2023

Appellate Division, First Department

[*1]

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Walter Jones, Appellant.

Jenay Nurse Guilford, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Nicole P. Geoglis of counsel), for appellant.

Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Elliott Robert Hamilton of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Raymond L. Bruce, J.), entered on or about October 1, 2021, which denied defendant’s Correction Law § 168-o (2) petition to modify his sex offender classification from level three to level one or two, unanimously modified, on the facts and in the exercise of discretion, to the extent of designating defendant a level two sex offender, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.

An order denying the modification of a sex offender classification is appealable under the general principles relating to civil appeals contained in CPLR 5701 (a) ( People v Shaljamin , 164 AD3d 1169 [1st Dept 2018]).

Based on the particular circumstances of this case, including the evidence of rehabilitation set forth by the Board of Examiners of Sex Offenders in its recommendation for a modification to level two, we find, in the exercise of our discretion, that defendant’s situation has changed in the decades following his initial SORA adjudication to a degree warranting such a modification ( see People v Davis , 179 AD3d 183 , 189 [2d Dept 2019]). Concur—Manzanet-Daniels, J.P., Singh, Moulton, Shulman, Higgitt, JJ..