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Gjurovich v. U.S., Slip Copy, 2009 WL 3232139 (N.D.N.Y. 2009) involved a petitioner who pled guilty to a two count indictment charging him with transporting child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252A(a)(1) and possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(5)(B). In October 2001, petitioner was sentenced by this Court to seventy (70) months incarceration on Count One and (60) months incarceration on Count Two to run concurrently followed by three (3) years of supervised release. Petitioner did not appeal his conviction or sentence. The United States Probation Office filed a petition for modification of the conditions or terms of his supervised release to require him to submit to computerized voice stress analysis (CVSA), in addition to regular polygraph examinations, as a further special condition of his release in the community. The petitioner objected to the Probation O

A Rockland County law barring where sex offenders can reside was struck down late last month by New York State Supreme Court Justice William A. Kelly because it conflicted with existing state regulations. In an immediate and strong response last week to eliminate the pre-emption, Senate majority leader Malcolm A. Smith, D-Queens, joined Senator Craig Johnson, D-Port Washington, at a Mineola news conference to announce a measure that would prohibit registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, park or day-care center, the precise residence requirement contained in the local law that was stuck down. The bill is in committee in the State Senate.

The woman accused of using MySpace to bully a vulnerable teenage girl who subsequently killed herself has been found guilty of three misdemeanor charges. Lori Drew created a fake MySpace profile in the name of Josh Evans and used the persona to flirt with a thirteen year old girl named Megan Meier, who her daughter had previously fallen out with. After weeks of flirting Drew then sent her message which said: "Youre a shitty person, and the world would be a better place without you in it." About 20 minutes later, Tina Meier found her daughter hanging from her belt in her bedroom closet. She died at the hospital the next day.

Every online picture has a unique "Hash Value" that, once identified and collected, can be used to digitally match the same image anywhere else it is distributed. It is analagous to a fingerprint. As part of an undercover investigation, the New York State Attorney General's office built a library of the Hash Values for images identified as being child pornography, enabling investigators to filter through tens of thousands of online files at a time, speedily identifying which Internet Service Providers were providing access to child pornography images. This led to five of the world's largest Internet Service Providers ("ISPs"), AT&T, AOL, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint to reach an agreement with the New York State Attorney General's office to shut down major sources of online child pornography. For the first time, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint have agreed to block access to child porn from two significant sources. The companies will eliminate acces

Part 2 of this topic discusses new legislation regarding dangerous drugs, defective toys and sexual predators using the internet to prowl and prey. The information herein is set forth in press releases issued by the governor's office. Proposed legislation designed to protect patients from medical malpractice was discussed in Part 1 of this blog. Governor David A. Paterson has proposed legislation to limit the influence of pharmaceutical manufacturers over prescription decisions by banning gifts and payments from drug companies to physicians and other prescribers in excess of $50 per year. The bill would also require practitioners who m

Last week was a busy week for New York's Governor David A. Paterson on issues often written about in this blog - medical malpractice, dangerous drugs, defective toys and sexual predators using the internet. Some bills were signed, others introduced. The most ambitious of these was on the medical malpractice front, Governor Paterson proposed legislation that offers more transparency for patients and tougher discipline for physicians; enhanced infection control requirements will facilitate the prevention of and response to infectious disease transmissions. Part 1 will discuss this legislation, Part 2 the others. The information herein is set forth in press releases issued by the governo

New York's legislative leaders, at the request of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, have introduced a new and comprehensive bill known as the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP) that establishes vital protections against sexual predators so that users of the Internet can more safely surf the Web. e-STOP would require sex offenders to register their email addresses, instant message screen names and any other online identifiers, and would give access to that information to online social networking companies. Those sites would then be able to prescreen and block access by convicted sex offenders. According to the state Division for Criminal Justice Services, there are nearly 25,000 registered sex offenders in the state. 9,565 are level 2 registered sex offenders (moderate risk to commit another sex crime). 6,515 are level 3 registered sex offenders (high risk to commit another sex crime and a threat to public safety exists). Sex offend

Subpoenas were issued to Myspace by a federal grand jury last month. The subpoenas issued are connected to the suicide of Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from Missouri. Megans suicide is linked to Lori Drew, Drews teenage daughter and Ashley Grills, Drews former employee who set up a fake online account under the social networking site, MySpace. Drew, her daughter, and Grills used the identity Josh Evans, a good-looking 16 year-old to befriend Megan. Josh contacted on Megans MySpace account one month before her suicide with friendly messages, but the final message to Megan said The world would be a better place without you. Megan hung herself in her bedroom closet and died the same day. The Drew family and Meir family were neighbors and lived a few blocks away from each other. Megan and Drews daughter were friends, but their friendship died down when in junior high school. Drew denies commenting on Megans Myspace page only stating that

MySpace, the country's largest social-networking Web site, has agreed with attorneys general of 49 states to take new steps to protect children from sexual predators and bullies on its site. MySpace also agreed to lead a nationwide effort to develop technology to verify the ages and identities of Internet users. The popular online hangout will create a task force of industry professionals to improve the safety of users, and other social-networking sites will be invited to participate. ''We must keep telling children that they're not just typing into a computer. They're sharing themselves with the world,'' said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. The exponential growth of sites such as MySpace and Facebook, with teenagers making up a large part of their membership, has created a new potential venue for sexual predators who lie about their age to lure young victims and for cyber bullies who send threatening and anonymous messages. The sites allow any Interne

Courts contnue to find it important that schools fulfill their non-delegable duty ofprotecting their students. Recently, the Appellate Division, Third Department, in Matter of Binghamton City School District v. Peacock, Docket No. 502329, held that public policy supports a no-leniency standard for teachers that instill harmon their students. The court clearly delivered this message when it held that a two-year suspensionfor a teacher who engaged in a "grossly inappropriate" relationship with a sixteen year old student was too lenient. The case centers on a teacher where there is evidence that he helped the student purchase a cell phone and spoke to her over 1300 times on the phone, and there is also an issue as to whether therelationship turned sexual.The teacher was warned at least three times by the school to desist his inappropria