People v. Sanchez CA5

INTRODUCTION

Defendant Robert Sanchez appeals from the court’s order denying his 2022 petition filed pursuant to Penal Code section 290.5 to terminate his sex offender registration requirement, which arose from a 1986 conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14. (Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.) At the hearing on the petition, the parties agreed the evidence showed, following his 1986 conviction defendant was repeatedly arrested for similar conduct, including as recently as in 2018, but none of these charges resulted in convictions. The court denied defendant’s petition based on its safety concerns in light of the number of subsequent arrests for similar conduct, and it required defendant to continue to register for a period of two years before he could again petition for termination of the registration requirement. On appeal, defendant argues the trial court abused its discretion in concluding community safety would be appreciably increased by requiring defendant to continue to register for two additional years. Rather, the prosecution failed to establish terminating the registration requirement would raise the threat to…