Citing a state Superior Court decision, a defense lawyer wants Butler County Court to drop its attempt to register a local man as a sexually violent offender after he pleaded guilty to trying to get a teenager to send him nude photos.

Public Defender Maura Palumbi requested that Judge William Shaffer withhold the sexual offender assessment of Anthony J. Smith.

Smith pleaded guilty in April to corruption of minors and criminal attempt of sexual abuse of children through the production of child pornography. The 43-year-old Butler man has not yet been sentenced.

Palumbi cited a 2017 Superior Court decision that deemed the process unconstitutional.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Zanella countered that “there's nothing unconstitutional about an assessment.”

Shaffer decided to review the material and make a decision later.

Pennsylvania law divides sexual offenders into three categories and assigns varying registration terms for all three.

These designations are still on the books and would be unaffected by changes to the sexually violent designation. However, the Superior Court ruled in 2017 that counties “cannot designate convicted defendants sexually violent predators nor may they hold sexually violent predator hearings until the General Assembly enacts a constitutional designation mechanism.”

A designation of sexually violent predator is active for life regardless of the tier designation, unlike a standard sexual offender registration.

The ruling, Palumbi argued, means that Smith cannot be assessed as a sexually violent predator. The Superior Court ruled that the designation of a sexually violent predator is unconstitutional because it adds an extra layer of punishment that isn't accounted for in the state's sentencing guidelines.

The laws surrounding sexual predators are currently undergoing “a sea change,” according to a Superior Court opinion on the matter after the state's Supreme Court decided that the act of registering as a sexual predator is a form of punishment, not just a civil action.

District Attorney Richard Goldinger pointed out that the laws regarding sexual offender registration are in a state of flux.

“We don't know what the law is going to be,” Goldinger said, adding that such cases are working their way through the courts and revisions are making their way through the General Assembly.

For now, the court advises trial courts like Butler must wait until the Legislature enacts laws addressing the sexually violent predator designation. In the meantime, trial courts are to stay within the general guidelines of registering sexual offenders under the standard rules of the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

Palumbi noted that the Legislature has passed Act 10, which allows the use of the sexually violent predator designation. But that has been challenged as well and is currently before the Supreme Court in Commonwealth vs. Lacombe.

Police say Smith posed as a 15-year-old last year during initial online communications with a minor in El-Paso, Texas. Their correspondence grew to include platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, Textnow and other social media outlets.

After Shaffer makes a decision, the case could be appealed to the state's Superior Court.