By Rebecca Henely
A sex offender from Jackson Heights will be spending up to four years in prison for failing to register his Facebook username and e-mail address with the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Queens district attorney’s office said last week.
Luis Ortiz, 31, pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court last month to offering a false instrument for filing and violating corrections law, the DA said. Ortiz was convicted under a 2008 law known as the Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act, which requires all sex offenders to register their Internet accounts, Internet service providers, e-mail addresses and screen names, the DA said. Ortiz was the first person to be charged with violating the law, the DA said.
In December 2008, Ortiz pleaded guilty to promoting a sexual performance by a child and got 10 years probation for his crime, the DA said. In July 2009, he was classified as a sex offender, which required him to register any of his identifying information online with the DCJS, the DA said.
Ortiz said he had none when he submitted his registration forms to DCJS, the DA said, but through an investigation via the city Department of Probation and the Sex Offender Monitoring Unit of the NYPD’s Special Victims Division, Ortiz was found to be using a Facebook account with the user name Kal-El and an e-mail address at nyspops@gmail.com. Kal-El is the birth name of the DC comics superhero Superman.
Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt imposed a determinate sentence of two to four years for Ortiz June 7.
“My office is committed to protecting children from sexual predators — especially those who attempt to sexually exploit children through the use of online services and the Internet,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. “This case should serve as a warning to other registered sex offenders that they must comply with the law — otherwise they, too, may find themselves spending significant time behind bars.”
Reach reporter Rebecca Henely by e-mail at rhenely@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.
