A Peshtigo man serving a 25-year sentence in a federal prison for child sex exploitation is scheduled to stand trial on state charges alleging he exploited and sexually assaulted teenage girls in Oconto County.
Zachary A. Zastawniak, 24, was scheduled to enter a plea in Oconto County Circuit Court on Dec. 11, but that hearing was postponed, because defense attorney Kirk Obear was said to be researching whether to bring a motion to dismiss on grounds of double jeopardy.
At a followup hearing Feb. 7, Obear did not file such a motion but asked Judge Jay Conley for another delay to allow District Attorney Hannah Schuchart time to review the sentencing transcript from federal court.
Conley scheduled another followup hearing for Feb. 27, but pointedly 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.”
The Feb. 27 hearing turned out to be very brief, as Schuchart and Obear asked that a five-day jury trial be scheduled, which Conley set for Aug. 25-29 with a final pre-trial conference on July 15.
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.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
Zastawniak asks for jury trial
