People v Bernstein
2020 NY Slip Op 06021 [187 AD3d 607]
October 22, 2020
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, December 2, 2020


[*1]
 The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Brett Bernstein, 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.

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 AD3d 531 [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 21/2 years at the time of the petition. Concur—Friedman, J.P., Kern, Scarpulla, Shulman, JJ.