A convicted sex offender who has been on Megan’s Law for decades was ordered held in jail after failing to register while on release pending sentencing on a similar violation.
Michael Bezak, 44, whose last registered location was Atlantic City, has a history of violating the conditions of his community supervision for life, Assistant Prosecutor Jasmine Ostrow told the judge during a detention hearing Wednesday.
Bezak “has been convicted of violating his supervision many, many times throughout the years,” Ostrow said.
Judge Patricia Wild said she counted about 33 indictable offenses in Bezak’s history, most for registration violations following his release on a child endangerment plea in 1998.
Bezak was originally charged with second-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact in the March 31, 1998 Ocean County case, court records show.
Since then, he has racked up charges in Mercer, Ocean and Atlantic counties, most violations of the community supervision for life stipulation.
He was just released last month pending a sentencing for another violation. His attorney, Lauren Musarra, told the judge that her client said he went to probation to register, but had to leave after waiting four hours.
Probation had a different version, according to Ostrow.
She said they had him coming into the building at 11:07 a.m. Aug. 4, saying he was going out to smoke a cigarette.
When someone came to the lobby looking for him at 11:30 a.m., he could not be found, Ostrow said.
“He never returned,” she said. “It was less than a half-hour after he checked in, not four hours later.”
Bezak did not stick around for the judge’s ruling Thursday, which he attended via video from the jail.
After Wild took issue with him having his arms inside his orange jail shirt, Bezak said something — which could not be heard since the jail was muted.
He then got up and left.
“Mr. Bezak just walked out,” a corrections officer then told the judge. “He didn’t want to continue this hearing.”
The hearing did continue, however, with the judge ordering him held.
Bezak has tried to appeal his case before, saying he did not understand the supervision requirements when he pleaded guilty to the third-degree charge in 1998.
“The imposition of community supervision for life must be eliminated from (defendant’s) sentenced and his convictions for violating conditions of community supervision for life must be reversed,” the defense wrote in the 2019 appeal of a 2015 decision.
But the appellate judges found that Bezak did understand the conditions.
“During the plea colloquy, defendant interrupted the sentencing court and asked, ‘With that Megan’s Law, right, suppose down
the line when I have kids and stuff, is there any way I can get off that?'” they quoted him in their decision.
“Before defendant posed that question, the court had only mentioned that the endangering charge was a ‘Megan’s Law violation’ without further explanation,” they wrote. “Logically, it follows that defendant knew from his discussion with counsel and his review of the plea form that he was going to be subject to Megan’s Law strictures, including community supervision for life.”
Bezak will remain in the Atlantic County Justice Facility pending his sentencing in the other case, which is set for Sept. 21.
