Get Herald RSSFormer varsity hockey player Harrison Zolnierczyk '11 pleaded guilty to the production and distribution of voyeuristic materials in a British Columbia court Friday. Zolnierczyk had also faced more serious charges of child pornography, which were dropped as part of a plea bargain, the prosecution told The Herald.
The voyeurism charges carry a minimum sentence of a discharge without a criminal record and a maximum sentence of six months in jail and three months probation, Provincial Crown Counsel Gordon Baines said. However, the charges are the result of a new law passed in British Columbia in 2003, so prosecutors have no precedent for sentencing, Baines said. He would not disclose the sentence he will request before the judge at Zolnierczyk's sentencing hearing June 6 in Port Alberni provincial court.
The guilty plea was entered by Zolnierczyk's lawyer Richard Fowler. Zolnierczyk did not appear in court last week to enter the plea, Baines said, though he must be present for his sentencing hearing.
Zolnierczyk and Fowler did not respond to phone calls or e-mails.
Canwest News Service reported Monday that the case involves a surreptitiously recorded, sexually explicit video featuring an underage girl. That video was subsequently posted on YouTube, Canwest reported.
Baines said the child pornography charges were dropped in the plea bargain because they arose from the same incident, and that the charges to which Zolnierczyk pleaded guilty fully describe the crime.
"The main factor is: Do the pleas to those counts accurately address the facts?" Baines said, to which the answer, he believes, is "absolutely."
Zolnierczyk's co-accused, former Alberni Valley Bulldogs teammate Brad Harding, has entered a similar guilty plea in which the child pornography charges will also be stayed, Baines said.
Zolnierczyk was released from Brown's varsity hockey team in February after the Providence Journal published a story about the charges against him, though the University was aware of the charges before then.
Vice President for Public Affairs and University Relations Michael Chapman said the University could not comment on the implications of Zolnierczyk's plea for his future on the hockey team or as a student at Brown.
"This is a privacy matter for a student, and, you know, the University doesn't have a comment on it," he said.
He added that Brown's standards of student conduct "don't speak specifically to the question of a violation of laws outside of the University disciplinary system." In such cases, the University officials must proceed "on a case by case basis," abiding by those standards as best as possible.
