Opinion
12143 SCI No. 4232/16 Case No. 2019–3533
10-22-2020
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Brett BERNSTEIN, Defendant-Appellant.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Molly Schindler of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Victoria Muth of counsel), for respondent.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Molly Schindler of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Victoria Muth of counsel), for respondent.
Friedman, J.P., Kern, Scarpulla, Shulman, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Juan M. Merchan, J.), entered on or about March 12, 2019, which denied defendant's Correction Law § 168–o (2) petition to modify his sex offender classification to level two, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court providently exercised its discretion in denying a modification of defendant's level three classification. The mitigating circumstances cited by defendant, who was a gym teacher at the time of the underlying offenses, do not outweigh the seriousness of the underlying sex crimes against his two 14–year–old students, by which defendant demonstrated a grave risk to society (see People v. Lopez, 154 A.D.3d 531, 61 N.Y.S.3d 883 [1st Dept. 2017] ). Although defendant contends that he has lived a law-abiding life for an extended period since his conviction, he had been on probation supervision for only 2½ years at the time of the petition.