An appeals court reduced the risk level classification of a sex offender after determining his victim was not a stranger to him nor a person he developed a relationship with primarily so he could sexually victimize her.

The Appellate Division, Third Department, reclassified Jonathan Birch as a Level 1 offender under the Sex Offender Registration Act [SORA] from the Level 2 category in which he had been placed in by Albany Supreme Court Justice Thomas Breslin.