A trial court must decide whether to require discretionary sex registration at the time sentence is imposed; it may not defer that decision to a later date when a previously imposed sentence is executed. Appellant was charged with various offenses against a minor, including lewd acts. She pled guilty to felony child endangerment. Sentence was imposed but suspended in execution and appellant was granted probation. The sentencing court warned appellant that if probation was revoked it would require her to register as a sex offender. When probation was revoked and the sentence executed, the court ordered sex registration. This was error. Penal Code section 290.006 allows a sentencing court to order registration “if the court finds at the time of conviction or sentencing that the person committed the offense as a result of sexual compulsion or sexual gratification . . . .” The court may not defer the decision whether or not to order registration not otherwise mandated, to a later date. However, in this case appellant did not raise this procedural error at trial or on appeal. Trial counsel may not have objected to the trial court’s erroneous procedure because the court was giving his client the opportunity to succeed on probation and avoid registration. On appeal, any issue raised regarding the procedure employed would have been forfeited or invited, because trial counsel did not object and in fact acquiesced to the trial court’s procedure.
Case Summaries