pdComp Catalog Conversion: California → New York

Scope: charges.json (690 rows), citations.json (680 rows), court_personnel.json Method: Deep per-charge research pass — each row's real-world CA statute was matched to its closest real NY equivalent by legal concept (not a mechanical prefix swap), with a [CA->NY conversion] note left on every changed row explaining the mapping and flagging approximations.

charges.json — 609 of 690 rows converted

The 81 rows under Federal Offenses (18/21/16 U.S.C.) were left untouched — federal law doesn't change based on which state the game is set in.

Everything else was remapped from California Penal Code / Vehicle Code / Health & Safety Code / etc. to the real New York statute governing that offense:

Notable legal-concept differences flagged in the notes:

• CA's "wobbler" felony/misdemeanor charges and "serious felony" (PC 1192.7) list → NY's fixed-degree felony classes (A–E) and violent-felony-offender sentencing (PL 70.02/70.06/70.08).

• CA's "criminal threats" (PC 422) → NY has no identical statute; mapped to Menacing (PL 120.14) as the misdemeanor base and Making a Terroristic Threat (PL 490.20) as the closest felony analog, with a note that NY's threat statute is narrower in scope.

• CA's Three Strikes law → NY persistent/second violent felony offender sentencing (PL 70.04/70.06/70.08).

• CA gang enhancements (PC 186.22) and gang injunctions → no direct NY equivalent; mapped to Enterprise Corruption (PL Article 460) and sentencing-level aggravating factors, flagged as approximate.

• CA firearm/GBI sentencing enhancements (PC 12022.x) → NY doesn't bolt these onto a base charge the way CA does; weapon use and injury instead define a higher-degree offense (e.g., Assault 2nd → Assault 1st), supplemented by Criminal Use of a Firearm (PL 265.09).

• Mayhem/torture (no NY equivalent) → folded into Assault 1st Degree (PL 120.10).

• Carjacking (no NY equivalent) → Robbery 1st Degree (PL 160.15).

High-confidence areas: Penal Law crimes against persons, property crimes, weapons, sex offenses, DV, public justice, vehicular/DUI — these are well-documented NY statutes. Lower-confidence areas (flagged for your own double-check): Fish & Game → ECL section numbers, and a handful of niche regulatory codes (Business/Professions, Harbors & Navigation, Welfare & Institutions) where NY's statutory numbering is less commonly cited.

citations.json — 663 of 680 rows converted

The 17 Federal Citations (36 CFR National Park Service regs) were left untouched for the same reason as above.

Traffic citations mapped concept-by-concept rather than subsection-by-subsection, since many of the source CA subsection letters (e.g., VC.22349(k) "wildlife crossing zone") are catalog-invented expansions rather than real statute text:

Lowest-confidence area: the LA Municipal Code parking citations and Fish & Game citations — both sides of that mapping are hyper-local/regulatory rather than well-documented state statute, so these are good-faith concept matches rather than verified subsection citations.

court_personnel.json

• All 12 state judges: Dept. X → N.Y. Supreme Court, Criminal Term, Part X (kept the same letter/number so existing save data / references still line up).

• All 4 federal judges: U.S. District Court, Courtroom X → U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Courtroom X.

• Judge/prosecutor/defense-counsel personality fields (style, tendency, bias values) were already jurisdiction-neutral and needed no changes.

What to spot-check yourself

1. ECL (Fish & Game) section numbers — I flagged these as approximate; if hunting/fishing RP matters to your server, worth verifying against the actual NY ECL.

2. NYC municipal parking citations (34 RCNY) — mapped at the "this is the right general rule" level, not exact subsection-for-subsection.

3. Anywhere you see a note starting with "NY has no direct equivalent" or "approximate" — I made a deliberate best-fit choice rather than inventing a fake-precise citation; those are the spots most likely to benefit from a second look if you want courtroom dialogue to cite chapter and verse.

Post-delivery audit (second pass)

After delivery, I ran a full audit in two parts: (1) an exhaustive structural scan confirming zero leftover CA statute references anywhere in either file, and (2) a targeted legal-accuracy check — pulling actual statute text from nysenate.gov and other primary sources for the highest-frequency and lowest-confidence citations. 26 rows were corrected as a result. Every corrected row carries a [Review fix] tag in its notes field explaining what changed and why, in addition to the original [CA->NY conversion] tag.

Real errors found and fixed

Confirmed correct on direct verification (no change needed)

VTL 1180 (speed), 1192 (DWI/DWAI, including the 0.18% Aggravated DWI threshold), 511 (AUO), 1227 (open container — confirmed it explicitly covers cannabis too, not just an analog), 1229-c (seatbelts), 1102 (obey officer); PL 120.00/120.05/120.08/120.10/120.11/120.13–120.17 (assault/menacing article), 265.01/265.01-a/265.01-b/265.02 (weapons), 155.25/155.30 (larceny), 195.05 (obstructing governmental administration), 215.50 (contempt), 190.25 (impersonation), 220.03 (drug possession), ABC Law 65/65-a/65-c (minor alcohol provisions), ECL 11-0503/11-0535/11-0701 (stream pollution, endangered species, hunting/fishing licenses), NAV 45/49-a (reckless operation, BUI).

What's still unverified

The long tail of roughly 600 rows each cited once or twice — mostly lower-stakes traffic-equipment and municipal citations — were not individually re-checked against primary sources a second time. The NYC 34 RCNY parking mappings remain concept-level matches rather than verified subsections, since both sides of that comparison are hyper-local rather than well-documented state statute.