by peter e. bortner
A Hamburg man serving prison time for sexually abusing a girl for eight years cannot now contest his classification as a sexually violent predator, a three-judge state Superior Court panel has ruled.
In a six-page opinion filed Wednesday in Pottsville, the panel upheld the guilty plea, sentence and classification of Daren N. Levan, 46, ruling he provided no reason to justify why he could not have contested the determination that he was a sexually violent predator.
"The trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying (Levan's) fourth request for a continuance," Judge Judith Ference Olson wrote in the panel's opinion.
Levan pleaded guilty Dec. 21, 2011, to 10 counts each of corruption of minors and indecent exposure, eight of indecent assault, three each of depicting the sex act of a child and selling or furnishing liquor to a minor and one of endangering the welfare of children. Prosecutors withdrew 10 counts of open lewdness and six of unlawful contact with a minor.
Judge John E. Domalakes accepted Levan's plea and, on June 29, 2012, sentenced him to serve six to 23 months in prison and an additional seven years on probation, pay costs, $3,000 in fines and $50 to the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account, undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation and submit a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities.
He also ruled Levan is a sexually violent predator and subject to lifetime Megan's Law reporting requirements following his release from prison.
State police at Schuylkill Haven charged Levan with sexually molesting the girl beginning in February 2003, when she was 8 and he was 36, and continuing for about eight years.
Domalakes refused Levan's request for more time to try to gather evidence that he was not a sexually violent predator, and Olson wrote that there was nothing wrong with that.
Levan had received the report from the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board in March 2012, more than three months before the sentencing hearing, and provided no reason why he could not challenge it, Olson wrote. Levan alleged he needed more documents to challenge the board, but he never specified what those documents were or why he needed them, she wrote.
"There was simply no reason why his expert could not challenge the (board's) determination without the supporting documentation," Olson wrote.
Domalakes already had granted three continuances to Levan, according to Olson.
"The trial court thoroughly weighed (Levan's) right for adequate time to prepare his defense and the orderly administration of justice as required," she wrote.
Judge Sallie Updyke Mundy and Senior Judge Eugene B. Strassburger III, the other panel members, joined in Olson's opinion.
The Megan's Law sanctions to which Levan will be subject include requirements that he report his address, employment and educational statuses, and any change in them, to state police for the rest of his life after he leaves prison. Any failure to comply with those sanctions is a crime in itself and could result in further prosecution.
Megan's Law was enacted in Pennsylvania, numerous other states and at the federal level following the 1994 murder of Megan Nicole Kanka, 7, of Hamilton Township, Mercer County, N.J. Jesse Timmendequas, Kanka's killer, was a convicted sex offender and one of the girl's neighbors.
He is serving a life sentence following then-New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine's commutation of his death sentence after that state abolished its death penalty.