Appellate Division orders new trial in sex offender civil management case

January 26, 2024 Robert Abruzzese, Courthouse Editor

Coleen Babb (left) and Justice Dineen Riviezzo at a KCCBA meeting.
Photo: Robert Abruzzese/Brooklyn Eagle

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The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court has overturned a Kings County Supreme Court decision in the civil management case of Ezikiel R., a convicted sex offender.

The lower court, under Judge Dineen Riviezzo, had found that Ezikiel R. did not meet the criteria for a mental abnormality as defined under Mental Hygiene Law, despite his diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and psychopathy.

The appellate panel ruled that these diagnoses could, in fact, constitute a basis for a mental abnormality under the law. The panel also highlighted a misinterpretation in the Supreme Court’s judgment regarding Ezikiel R.’s condition of sexual sadism disorder.

This reversal mandates a new trial in the Supreme Court, Kings County, to reevaluate Ezikiel R.’s mental state under the guidelines of Mental Hygiene Law article 10, which pertains to the civil management of sex offenders.