BALLSTON SPA — A former Saratoga County man has asked a judge to lower his sex offender risk level, even as he remains civilly confined among the state's worst such offenders.
After legal arguments presented in Saratoga County Court, the judge has refused his request.
Andrew Pratt, 54, is a Level 3 sex offender, according to the state sex offender database. Level 3 offenders are believed to be at the highest risk to commit further sex crimes.
He lives in the Central New York Psychiatric Center, near Utica, where many of the state's civilly confined sex offenders are housed. Pratt was the first sex offender from Saratoga County to be civilly confined a decade ago.
At Friday's hearing, prosecutor Michele Schettino told Judge James A. Murphy III that it "defies logic" that Pratt would be categorized anything other than a Level 3 sex offender. State assessments — as recently as October 2016 — indicate he isn't ready for release, even after a decade in civil confinement, she said.
"He remains a high risk to the community and a threat to public safety," Schettino said. "That is precisely why he remains incarcerated." ..Continue..
