A plea hearing for a Peshtigo man charged with exploiting and sexually assaulting teenaged girls in Oconto County was postponed Dec. 11 after his attorney said the defense was preparing a motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds.
Zachary A. Zastawniak, 24, was sentenced in September to 25 years in federal prison, followed by 25 years of extended supervision for child sex exploitation.
He 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.
During what had been scheduled as a plea hearing before Judge Jay Conley, attorney Stephanie Rock said her colleague, Kirk Obear, was in the process of preparing a motion to dismiss the local charges on grounds of double jeopardy, the legal doctrine that a person cannot be tried for the same crime more than once.
“We have received an offer from the state … Attorney Obear is essentially doing some intensive research on grounds for a motion to dismiss based on potential double jeopardy issues, so we need to make a record of that,” Rock said. “He is in the middle of completing that motion.”
The move came as a surprise to Conley, who said he had been informed just prior to entering the courtroom that attorneys had agreed to postpone the plea hearing.
“I understand that the defense has got to seek to be effective, and they want to cover all their bases, and I think that’s fine,” District Attorney Hannah Schuchart said. “I explained that to the victim representative as well, and they’re understanding of that.”
“This is all news to me,” Conley said. “I will note just as a starting point, I certainly haven’t researched that double jeopardy question, but I’m very aware that there’s a separate sovereigns doctrine, and usually I don’t think the state is bound by what federal authorities have done and the other way around.”
That said, Conley agreed to schedule a motion hearing for 9 a.m. Feb. 7 to consider the defense arguments.
“Let’s not waste any more time on this,” the judge said. “If you want to file that motion, file that motion and let’s hear it on that day.”
According to court filings, Schuchart’s plea offer is for Zastawniak to enter pleas to six counts — soliciting a child for prostitution, two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, threatening to communicate derogatory information, trafficking of a child and felony bail jumping — in exchange for dismissing the other 20 charges.
The state would recommend that he be sentenced to 20 years in prison, followed by 15 years of extended supervision, to run concurrently with the federal sentence and with a pending Brown County case.
Zastawniak pleaded guilty in February 2020 to child sexual exploitation, and Brown County Judge Timothy Hinkfuss approved a deferred judgment agreement, in which the charges were suspended as long as he committed no further offenses. That agreement was revoked in September 2023 after the new allegations surfaced.
Hinkfuss is scheduled to sentence Zastawniak on the original charge on Jan. 10.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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