NM Supreme Court Considers Sex Offender Definition

From daily-times.com -If a man convicted of a sex crime in California moves to New Mexico, is he required to register as a sex offender? The New Mexico Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in such a case, a clash between the state's law enforcement system and a 65-year-old man named Bruce D. Hall. Hall pleaded no contest 13 years ago in California to the misdemeanor of "annoying or molesting a child." New Mexico prosecutors say he touched the genitals of three young boys when lifting them. California still lists Hall on its sex offender registry, but says his whereabouts are unknown. In fact, Hall moved to Las Cruces, where he did not register as a sex offender. This led the district attorney's staff in Dona Ana County to charge him in 2008 with a fourth-degree felony and to try to compel him to register as a sex offender. Hall lost in district court, then appealed and won his case. The New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled that he did not have to register as a sex offender in New Mexico because the state has no equivalent law to the one he was convicted of breaking in California. Now it is the state that is appealing, asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to reverse that decision.
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