A state appeals court has unanimously upheld the county’s handling of a 2025 Sex Offender Registration Act case.

Jacob Feldt had appealed the county’s determination that he is a Level 2 risk under the state Sex Offender Registration Act. Feldt was originally charged in 2023 by Lakewood-Busti Police and then indicted 2024 in a nine-count indictment against a south county man accused of committing sexual acts against a child. Feldt was convicted of two felony counts in Chautauqua County Court: third-degree rape – oral sexual contact with a person incapable of consent with a person under the age of 17 and third-degree criminal sexual act actor 21 years old or more/victim less than 17 years. He was sentenced to one year in jail, 10 years of probation, and registration as a Level 2 sex offender, which indicates a medium risk of re-offense.

The county was represented in court by District Attorney Jason Schmidt.

Feldt appealed the Level 2 determination to the Fourth Department Appellate Court of Appeals, saying state Supreme Court Justice Grace Hanlon incorrectly assessed 20 points against him, a decision that pushed Feldt’s registration status from Level 1 to Level 2. Under the Sex Offender Registration Act, risk assessment guidelines state 20 points should be assigned if a sex offender’s crime . . . arose in the context of a professional or avocational relationship between the offender and the victim and was an abuse of such relationship.

“(In that) situation … there is a heightened concern for public safety and need for community notification,” the guidelines state, according to the Fourth Department Appellate Division’s ruling issued on June 26.

In December 2023, Lakewood-Busti police said Feldt had allegedly engaged in sexual acts with a minor at a Lakewood business. The appeals court said the Sex Offender Registration Act doesn’t specifically define the vocational relationship, but that other court rulings had held that professional relationships aren’t limited to those involving learned or licensed professions. Nathaniel Barone, county public defender, argued that the relationship between Feldt and the girl was personal, not professional.

“Here, we conclude that the People’s evidence at the SORA hearing established that the relationship between the 37-year-old defendant and the 16-year-old victim, prior to the offense conduct, was professional in nature, inasmuch as defendant was the manager of the (the business) where the victim worked and was her supervisor,” the appeals court wrote in its decision.

The fact the relationship began as a manager and employee superseded the personal relationship that developed later, the appeals court reasoned, with the judges concluding Hanlon was justified in assessing 20 points under risk factor 7.

“Given the evidence in the record establishing that the personal relationship between defendant and the victim formed after the professional relationship started, we reject defendant’s contention that his relationship with the victim was familial in nature,” the decision states.