Terms Used In New York Laws > Mental Hygiene > Title B > Article 10 - Sex Offenders Requiring Civil Commitment or Supervision

• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Asset: means property of a debtor, but the term does not include:
  
  (1) property to the extent it is encumbered by a valid lien;
  
  (2) property to the extent it is generally exempt under non-bankruptcy law; or
  
  (3) an interest in property held in tenancy by the entirety to the extent it is not subject to process by a creditor holding a claim against only one tenant. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• claim for relief: means a right to payment, whether or not the right is reduced to judgment, liquidated, unliquidated, fixed, contingent, matured, unmatured, disputed, undisputed, legal, equitable, secured or unsecured. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of mental health or the commissioner of developmental disabilities. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Correctional facility: means a correctional facility as that term is defined in § 2 of the correction law. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Counsel for respondent: means any counsel that has been retained or appointed for respondent, or if no other counsel has been retained or appointed, or prior counsel cannot be located with reasonable efforts, then the mental hygiene legal service. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Creditor: means a person that has a claim. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dangerous sex offender requiring confinement: means a person who is a detained sex offender suffering from a mental abnormality involving such a strong predisposition to commit sex offenses, and such an inability to control behavior, that the person is likely to be a danger to others and to commit sex offenses if not confined to a secure treatment facility. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Debt: means liability on a claim. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Debtor: means a person that is liable on a claim. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Designated felony: means any felony offense defined by any of the following provisions of the penal law: assault in the second degree as defined in section 120. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Detained sex offender: means a person who is in the care, custody, control, or supervision of an agency with jurisdiction, with respect to a sex offense or designated felony, in that the person is either:
  
  (1) A person who stands convicted of a sex offense as defined in subdivision (p) of this section, and is currently serving a sentence for, or subject to supervision by the division of parole, whether on parole or on post-release supervision, for such offense or for a related offense;
  
  (2) A person charged with a sex offense who has been determined to be an incapacitated person with respect to that offense and has been committed pursuant to Article seven hundred thirty of the criminal procedure law, but did engage in the conduct constituting such offense;
  
  (3) A person charged with a sex offense who has been found not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect for the commission of that offense;
  
  (4) A person who stands convicted of a designated felony that was sexually motivated and committed prior to the effective date of this article;
  
  (5) A person convicted of a sex offense who is, or was at any time after September first, two thousand five, a patient in a hospital operated by the office of mental health, and who was admitted directly to such facility pursuant to article nine of this title or § 402 of the correction law upon release or conditional release from a correctional facility, provided that the provisions of this article shall not be deemed to shorten or lengthen the time for which such person may be held pursuant to such article or section respectively; or
  
  (6) A person who has been determined to be a sex offender requiring civil management pursuant to this article. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Insider: includes :
  
  (1) if the debtor is an individual:
  
  (i) a relative of the debtor or of a general partner of the debtor;
  
  (ii) a partnership in which the debtor is a general partner;
  
  (iii) a general partner in a partnership described in subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph; or
  
  (iv) a corporation of which the debtor is a director, officer, or person in control;
  
  (2) if the debtor is a corporation:
  
  (i) a director of the debtor;
  
  (ii) an officer of the debtor;
  
  (iii) a person in control of the debtor;
  
  (iv) a partnership in which the debtor is a general partner;
  
  (v) a general partner in a partnership described in subparagraph (iv) of this paragraph; or
  
  (vi) a relative of a general partner, director, officer or person in control of the debtor;
  
  (3) if the debtor is a partnership:
  
  (i) a general partner in the debtor;
  
  (ii) a relative of a general partner in, a general partner of or a person in control of the debtor;
  
  (iii) another partnership in which the debtor is a general partner;
  
  (iv) a general partner in a partnership described in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph; or
  
  (v) a person in control of the debtor;
  
  (4) an affiliate, or an insider of an affiliate as if the affiliate were the debtor; and
  
  (5) a managing agent of the debtor. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Licensed psychologist: means a person who is registered as a psychologist under Article one hundred fifty-three of the education law. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Lien: means a charge against or an interest in property to secure payment of a debt or performance of an obligation, and includes a security interest created by agreement, a judicial lien obtained by legal or equitable process or proceedings, a common-law lien, or a statutory lien. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Mental abnormality: means a congenital or acquired condition, disease or disorder that affects the emotional, cognitive, or volitional capacity of a person in a manner that predisposes him or her to the commission of conduct constituting a sex offense and that results in that person having serious difficulty in controlling such conduct. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Office: means the office of mental health. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 7.03
• Organization: means a person other than an individual. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Person: means an individual, estate, partnership, association, trust, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or other legal or commercial entity. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Psychiatric examiner: means a qualified psychiatrist or a licensed psychologist who has been designated to examine a person pursuant to this article; such designee may, but need not, be an employee of the office of mental health or the office for people with developmental disabilities. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Qualified psychiatrist: means a physician licensed to practice medicine in New York state who: (1) is a diplomate of the American board of psychiatry and neurology or is eligible to be certified by that board; or (2) is certified by the American osteopathic board of neurology and psychiatry or is eligible to be certified by that board. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• released: means release, conditional release or discharge from confinement, from community supervision by the department of corrections and community supervision, or from an order of observation, commitment, recommitment or retention. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Respondent: means a person referred to a case review team for evaluation, a person as to whom a sex offender civil management petition has been recommended by a case review team and not yet filed, or filed by the attorney general and not dismissed, or sustained by procedures under this article. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Secure treatment facility: means a facility or a portion of a facility, designated by the commissioner, that may include a facility located on the grounds of a correctional facility, that is staffed with personnel from the office of mental health or the office for people with developmental disabilities for the purposes of providing care and treatment to persons confined under this article, and persons defined in paragraph five of subdivision (g) of this section. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Sex offender requiring civil management: means a detained sex offender who suffers from a mental abnormality. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Sex offender requiring strict and intensive supervision: means a detained sex offender who suffers from a mental abnormality but is not a dangerous sex offender requiring confinement. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Sex offense: means an act or acts constituting: (1) any felony defined in Article one hundred thirty of the penal law, including a sexually motivated felony; (2) patronizing a person for prostitution in the first degree as defined in § 230. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Sexually motivated: means that the act or acts constituting a designated felony were committed in whole or in substantial part for the purpose of direct sexual gratification of the actor. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 10.03
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Transfer: means every mode, direct or indirect, absolute or conditional, voluntary or involuntary, of disposing of or parting with an asset or an interest in an asset, and includes payment of money, release, lease, license, and creation of a lien or other encumbrance. See N.Y. Debtor and Creditor Law 270
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.