Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Flaherty, Jr. announces an appeal has been rejected in the case of Buffalo man who is a registered sex offender.

39-year old Quanaparker Howard was convicted of Unlawful Imprisonment in the First Degree and Assault in the First Degree in 1999 after abusing an eight year old boy by tying him to a bedpost for five days and beating him with a belt and an extension cord.

A judge required Howard to register as a Level 3 sex offender, the highest level, because of his unlawful imprisonment of a child less than 17 years old, but in 2013, when the defendant was nearing release from prison, he argued that he should be a less dangerous, Level 1 sex offender because of the lack of a sexual component to the crime.

Howard’s appeal to the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, and ultimately to the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court in Albany, was rejected, affirming the lower court’s determination that he is a Level 3 sex offender whose identity and whereabouts must be known to the public.

Acting DA Flaherty commends the legal work of his office’s Appeals Bureau including Assistant District Attorney Nicholas T. Texido who argued the appeal.