Source: observertoday.com 4/23/26
[ACSOL note: Write, call and show up, NY residents!]Assemblyman Andrew Molitor is among the co-sponsors of legislation that would require all sex offenders to be placed in the publicly searchable area of the state’s online sex offender registry.
Sponsored by Assemblyman Joseph Angelino, Binghamton, the legislation (A.10975) would amend the state’s Corrections Law to authorize the name, photo and other identifying information of Level 1 sex offenders to be publicly disclosed on the DCJS sex offender directory website.
Angelino’s bill has attracted…
Somebody please dumb this down for me. I’m just not seeing how this incident would have been prevented if this registrant’s entry were publicly accessible. Assuming the release of the sheriff’s department ( https://sheriff.ongov.net/2025/06/onondaga-county-sheriffs-office-arrests-ryan-pontello-for-sexual-assault-of-a-child/ ) is reasonably accurate, there is absolutely no indication I can see that the registry would have made a difference even if his entry were publicly available. Not to mention that of all crimes he was indicated for, there isn’t one single registry violation among them.
I have doubts about the reporting’s accuracy. It seems pretty doubtful to me that a 5-year-old would be at a playground, unsupervised. So whatever supervision was there could not have been very attentive if they didn’t notice a stranger walking off with the child that they accompanied.
It’s very unlikely that someone in the neighborhood knew the registrant’s history despite not being publicly accessible and set him up. I remember reading a couple of Halloweens seasons ago about a guy who spent almost a year complaining and gathering signatures in failed attempts to chase out the registrant who lived across the street from him. By sheer coincidence [/sarc], it was his daughter who was supposedly lured into the registrant’s house.
Merely having doubts is not sticking up for the registrant here. If there is actual forensic evidence proving the allegations, burn him at the stake. I’ll light the match. But the point of this writing is to once again show the registry’s uselessness at its purported purpose. Note also that it’s a tiered registry, meaning it is more costly in terms of dollars and man-hours while remaining equally useless.
The modern GOP hasn’t met a punishment it didn’t want more people to receive. That’s really all there is to it. It’s ironic that these are the people who will be celebrating America’s 250th birthday the most publicly, since they’re also the people who absolutely would have sided with King George.