Comments on: Brown Pornographer/Hockey Player Gets Clean Slate

By: 804000

804000 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:48:56 +0000

“She was 17 years old when Zolnierczyk surreptitiously recorded her topless, performing oral sex on his co-accused, an Alberni Valley Bulldogs Junior A hockey player whom she thought of as her boyfriend.

Zolnierczyk added what Judge Douglas Cowling called “an adolescent, crude and tasteless commentary” to the footage and then posted the video to the Internet. Later he shared the four-to-five-minute video with other people.

The woman also told the court that she knows for a fact that the video was sent out to people via instant messaging software, so it may be still tucked away on any number of hard drives.”
(http://news.guelphmercury.com/Wire/Sports_Wire/Jr_Hockey_Wire/article/338031)

By: fourleague

fourleague — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:33:08 +0000

@jazzarini

Don’t even try to spin his actions as just off the beaten path of rationality. What he did was disgusting. Just because there are more heinous crimes out there deos not make his any more acceptable. In my opinion he was old enough have Mens Rea (the knowledge that something is wrong, and choosing to do it anyways), and therefore I do not accept ignorance or stupidity as a defense.

By: jazzarini

jazzarini — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:04:22 +0000

@Dartmouth:

What he did was definitely mean-spirited and the work of an asshole with poor judgment, but it doesn’t strike me as evil or criminal the same way a 50 year old taping sex with a 10 year old child might be. And it definitely doesn’t raise concerns to anywhere near that level. It was the stupid mistake of a young person whose pre-frontal cortex might be a lil undeveloped.

By: Y11

Y11 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:18:20 +0000

Didn’t something like this happen at Yale one or two years back with some international kid (a non-athlete, incidentally)? What happened to him? Could be a valid comparison…

By: dontno

dontno — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:51:01 +0000

Anybody else think the punishment from Brown would have be different if he weren’t an athlete? Not only do they get HUGE admissions breaks, but now this? Who knows?

By: Dartmouth11WooHoo

Dartmouth11WooHoo — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:01:42 +0000

@jazzarini: If the reporting is correct, dude taped his girlfriend WITHOUT HER CONSENT and put it on the internet. Child porn laws are meant to protect those who don’t consent to having their nude photos sprawled across the internet – and legally, a minor cannot consent to that. How is that not exploitative? Granted, it is exploitative independent of the factor of age. But Zolnierczyk is not the victim here – he broke the law (and yes, the spirit of the law) regardless of how old the girl was. Once the authorities learned the girl was underage, a child porn charge would have been an automatic magnifier to the baseline charge of posting nude photos of someone without their consent. It also makes it much easier to prosecute. Granted, maybe the child porn charge should not magnify the “core” or baseline charge quite “to the fullest extent of the law,” but I think Juli’s point is more about Brown’s absurdity in saying “his conduct has raised no concerns.” Legal questions aside, homie took naked pics of his girlfriend without her consent and put them online. That’s a concern, and he’s an asshole who doesn’t deserve any breaks.

By: jazzarini

jazzarini — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:37:01 +0000

Oh please, spare me your bleeding heart journalism. Child pornography laws are meant to hamper to exploitation and abuse of innocent children by adults, not slutty, 17-year-old girlfriends. Zolnierczyk’s intent were not the product of a pedophile, nor were exploitive in that vein. To punish him to the fullest extent of the law would be venal and stupid.

By: Dartmouth11WooHoo

Dartmouth11WooHoo — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 04:09:47 +0000

nice post :)