McCulley v. People.

2020 CO 40. No. 18SC577. Sex Offender Registration—Petition for Removal from Registry.

May 18, 2020

Defendant pleaded guilty to two charges involving unlawful sexual behavior, but later had one charge dismissed following the successful completion of a deferred judgment. The district court held he was ineligible for removal from the sex offender registry because he had more than one conviction for sexual behavior, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

CRS § 16-22-113(3)(c) of the Colorado Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) bars an individual who “has more than one conviction” for unlawful sexual behavior from petitioning a court to discontinue the requirement to register as a sex offender. Construing the language of CRS § 16-22-113(3)(c) in the context of SORA as a whole and considering the commonly understood legal effect of a successfully completed deferred judgment, the Supreme Court held that a “conviction” for purposes of the eligibility bar in CRS § 16-22-113(3)(c) does not include a successfully completed deferred judgment.

The judgment was reversed.