News story from 2005 reminds us that the bill that increased time level 1s were forced to register was penned by corrupt criminal politician Dean Skelos

Don't ever forget that Laura Ahearn's biggest allies over the years later fell from grace for corruption, like Dean Skelos did.

http://liherald.com/stories/Reforming-Megans-LawHearing-held-to-determine-how-landmark-legislation-can-be-strengthened,10348

Reforming Megan's LawHearing held to determine how landmark legislation can be strengthened
Posted June 2, 2005
By Nicole Falco

Ten years old, when Russillo became his neighbor, the boy and his family never could have known that Russillo had been convicted on sexual abuse charges in 1980, because Megan's Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register with law enforcement, didn't exist. So they never could have known that Russillo was "grooming" the boy to be his next victim.
      In 2003, Russillo was convicted on two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. After a four-week trial, during which the boy testified for two days, Russillo was not found guilty of the more serious charges he faced, including sodomy, that would have carried a harsher sentence. On Tuesday, Russillo was released from jail and expected to return to his Suffolk County home, just two doors down from the boy he molested.
      "I don't understand why [he] has so many rights, and kids like me don't," the boy said at a hearing last Thursday at Valley Stream North High School to solicit the community's input on possible ways to bolster Megan's Law. "I don't wish what happened to me to happen to any other kid. ... Try hard to get these laws passed."
      Coming up on the 10-year anniversary of Megan's Law - named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered by her neighbor in July 1994 - the state Senate Committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Correction is holding a series of public hearings to gather information, and a bill to strengthen the current law is expected to be introduced in the Senate this month. Sen. Dean G. Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the author of the current law, and Sen. Michael Nozzolio (R-Fayette), the committee chairman, presided over the most recent hearings in Valley Stream. The first hearings were held in Albany earlier this month, and a third session will take place in Brooklyn.
      "This is, in my opinion, the most critical reform that we can pass," Skelos said. "The passing of a law to protect you, protect our community - that's the principal responsibility of government."
      The Megan's Law Reform Act of 2005 will encompass a variety of issues, including lifetime registration of all convicted sex offenders (low- and mid-level offenders currently register for 10 years), mandatory community notification, civil confinement of sexually violent predators, global-positioning-system tracking and the posting of information for all three levels of registered sex offenders on the Department of Criminal Justice Services Web site.
      "Even if [Russillo] had been registered 20 years prior, he would have only been registered for 10 years," the boy's mother testified. "A day doesn't go by that I don't think to myself, How could I let this happen? Why didn't I see it?"
      Of the 21,000 registered sex offenders in New York state, more than 400 live in Nassau County, and nearly 800 in Suffolk County. By year's end, 3,300 statewide will no longer be included on the registry, having fulfilled their 10-year obligation. Russillo is not automatically a high- or third-level offender. He is entitled to a hearing under the current law.
      The boy and his mother were two of the 10 people who testified before the committee, which was joined by other local politicians. A second victim testified, as did Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law; Dr. Marc Bernstein, Valley Stream high school superintendent; Cynthia Scott, executive director of the Coalition on Child Abuse and Neglect; and various law enforcement officials.
      The second victim, a young woman, said she was just 15 when she and three others were sexually abused by a youth counselor at her church. Matthew Maiello, now 31, who worked at East Meadow's St. Raphael Roman Catholic Church, pleaded guilty to third-degree rape and three counts of second-degree sodomy. He spent two years in jail, and is now living in upstate New York after being released in March.
      "It's ridiculous how a person who sexually abuses children can earn good time in jail," the young woman said. "I think it's the job of [lawmakers] to put forth these laws to be proactive instead of reactive."
      Ahearn called Megan's Law an effective tool, and hopes that it can be strengthened to include lifetime registration and stricter probation, and to require sex offenders who plead to the lesser charge of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, to register. She also called for the statute of limitations to be abolished.
      "A society can be measured by how well we protect our children," Ahearn said. "Protecting even one child is all it takes to ensure that a law is effective."
      Kenneth Rau, chief of detectives in Suffolk County, raised many of the same points as Ahearn. "It's very difficult to sit down with a parent and say what happened to your child is not important enough," he said of those instances where offenders are convicted of lesser crimes or serve minimal time.
      Bernstein called for a uniform system of notification for school districts, and added that sex offenders shouldn't be allowed to live within 1,000 feet of schools and other places where kids congregate.
      Scott and Nassau County Police Department Lt. John Allen called for educational programs in schools and communities. John Fowle, supervisor of the Special Victims Unit of the Nassau County Department of Probation, suggested lifetime parole and requiring offenders to register with the Department of Motor Vehicles. And Joy Watson, Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Bureau chief for the Nassau County district attorney's office, asked that youthful offenders not be exempt from the law.
      After hearing all of the testimony, Skelos said, "Obviously, changing some of the penal sections, like endangering the welfare of a child, came up repeatedly. Also, the theme of education - giving parents and kids the tools to protect themselves - that came out really clear."