A hearing was postponed again Feb. 7 for a Peshtigo man serving time in a federal prison and charged with exploiting and sexually assaulting teenage girls in Oconto County.
Zachary A. Zastawniak, 24, was scheduled to enter pleas Dec. 11, but that hearing was delayed while his attorneys studied whether to file a motion to dismiss based on double jeopardy. He had been sentenced in September to 25 years in federal prison, followed by 25 years of extended supervision for child sex exploitation.
Judge Jay Conley signaled he was prepared to move forward on the double jeopardy question, although he said the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld dual sovereignty as recently as 2019.
Defense attorney Kirk Obear did not file the expected motion after all, but he did provide District Attorney Hannah Schuchart with a transcript of Zastawniak’s sentencing hearing, during which he said U.S. District Judge William Griesbach took Oconto County victim impact information into consideration.
“Judge Griesbach indicated on the record specifically that he was incorporating and considering that impact information” in determining the federal sentence, Obear said.
Zastawniak faces 26 felony charges in Oconto County Circuit Court: two counts of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, three counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, three counts of child enticement, soliciting a child for prostitution, trafficking of a child, two counts of threatening to communicate derogatory information, five counts of felony bail jumping and eight counts of possession of child pornography.
According to the criminal complaint, a 15-year-old girl said she had sent Zastawniak explicit images of herself, and he later threatened to post them online unless she came to a hotel room and had sex with him.
In the federal case, Zastawniak was accused of sexually exploiting numerous minor girls in Oconto County and northeast Wisconsin, coercing them in sex acts — some of which he recorded.
Schuchart said she had not had time to review the sentencing transcript.
“I think defense would like me to look at the transcript to see specifically what was talked about in hopes maybe that we could come to some agreeable charges and get the matter resolved,” Schuchart said.
Conley said he was frustrated that no progress has been made in resolving the case since December, but he agreed to schedule another hearing for 2 p.m. Feb. 27.
“On that date, I want one of three things to happen,” Conley said. “I want us to either schedule a trial, schedule a plea hearing if there’s going to be a resolution, or if there’s a resolution before that date, let’s have a plea hearing.”
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
Hearing postponed in child enticement case
