VT- Case highlights differences in sex offender laws

Differences as explained in the article will create a disaster with the Adam Walsh Act (AWA). Also, when a state "gets tough" because of some local crime (i.e. Brooke Bennett) and makes their laws more strict than equivalent laws in other states, that too will cause problems with AWA. These differences could also cause differences in Tiers when both folks committed the same crime.

8-22-2009 Vermont:

BENNINGTON -- A Buskirk, N.Y., man facing felony charges in Vermont for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old girl is now facing misdemeanor charges in New York for similar acts.

Different laws
in different states

Bernard C. Miner Jr., 40, of County Route 59A, pleaded not guilty in Bennington District Court in June to a felony count of sexual assault on a victim under 16 years of age and one count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child.

According to an affidavit filed by Detective Lawrence Cole of the Bennington County Special Victims Unit, the acts occurred between Feb. 1 and March 11 at a residence on Waite Drive in Bennington. Cole’s affidavit also mentions similar acts conducted by Miner against the same girl at a residence in Buskirk.

According to a statement issued by New York State Police, Miner was arrested and processed on Aug. 4 by state troopers out of the Greenwich, N.Y., barracks following a joint investigation into the Bennington incident by the unit and the NYSP. He was charged in New York with one count of sexual abuse in the second degree and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, both class A misdemeanors.

Miner was arraigned before Cambridge Town Justice Thomas Armet and released on his own recognizance to appear again in Cambridge Town Court.

In Vermont, the sexual assault charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and a possible $10,000 fine. The lewd and lascivious conduct charge carries a 2- to 15-year sentence and possible $5,000 fine.

Washington County (N.Y.) District Attorney Kevin Kortright said a Class A misdemeanor is the most serious level of misdemeanor in New York and it carries sentence of up to one year in prison and a possible $1,000 fine. Kortright said for New York to consider Miner’s acts a felony, the alleged victim would have had to have been under 11 years of age.

Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage said the alleged victim being under 16 years old is enough for a felony charge in Vermont.

"Some New York laws are tougher than Vermont laws, and some Vermont laws are tougher than New York laws," Kortright said, adding that in New York, serious sex offenders tend to receive longer sentences.

Marthage said she does not feel that New York’s sex offender laws are tougher than Vermont’s. She said that because of New York’s county court system, it is difficult for attorneys in New York to know which judges will be hearing which cases, which makes giving estimates on sentences difficult. Marthage said that is often why she is reluctant to turn cases of any kind over to New York, because she does not know how offenders that cross the border will be punished.

She said the different classes of misdemeanors and felonies make trying cases that involve both states difficult. Misdemeanors and felonies in New York can be class A, B, C, D, or E, with A being the most serious and E the least. "It has been very difficult to get a clear idea of which New York charges are felonies in Vermont and which ones are not," she said in an interview Wednesday.

Marthage said Vermont tends to see more convictions for sex offenders than other states.

Last July, Rensselaer County legislators Lester Goodermote and Stan Brownell, Republicans who represent Hoosick, Berlin, Grafton, Stephentown and Petersburgh, sponsored a resolution calling on Vermont to toughen its sex offender laws.

The resolution followed an incident in which two young girls in Hoosick, N.Y., reported to police that a man in a car had attempted to coax them into his vehicle and told them he was a police officer. The man was later identified by police as a Bennington resident and arrested.

Brownell and Goodermote released statements at the time, saying that Vermont has a responsibility to protect the entire region by having its laws be equal to neighboring states.

"I know Vermont has made some changes with its sex offender laws," Goodermote said in an interview Thursday. He said his sentiments are the same as they were last year and are that sex offender laws need to be tightened and the laws in both states need to be equal in strength.

"I don’t want to see somebody molest some poor kid," Goodermote said. "It can change their lives."

Vermont state Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday that Vermont has passed a number of bills strengthening sex offender laws, including the creation of an aggravated sexual assault against a child charge that carries a 25-year minimum sentence. "We passed several strong bills that improved investigations," Sears said.

Vermont’s recent sex laws were passed in the wake of the killing of a Braintree girl, Brooke Bennett. ..Source.. by KEITH WHITCOMB JR.