Former church staff member gets 90 days for filming 13-year-old girl changing
Jason Polzin was in a position to provide guidance to children, the girl’s father said in court Monday. “Instead, he chose to prey on (my daughter) for his own sexual gratification,” he said.
MINNEAPOLIS – A former staff member at Living Word Christian Center will spend 90 days in the Hennepin County workhouse for filming a 13-year-old girl getting changed without her knowledge
Jason Gary Polzin, 50, of Prior Lake, pleaded guilty last month to interference with the privacy of a minor under 18 and appeared before District Judge Luis Bartolemi Monday.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to a lighter sentence, which included a stay of imposition for three years, 90 days in the Hennepin County workhouse and no contact with any minor girls. Polzin is also no longer allowed to work in schools. He is required to register as a predatory offender.
A stay of imposition postpones a sentence and reduces the charge to a lower level upon a successful probation period.
Polzin, a former softball coach with the church, filmed the child while she was changing in his office prior to softball practice.
The girl deleted the video after she found his phone recording her in his office and confronted Polzin, who said it was an accident.
A forensic analysis of his phone by police found 52 photos of the girl, which were taken in Polzin’s office. In addition, police found 165 photos of the girl’s face on a computer-generated female body.
Polzin was in a position to provide guidance to children, the girl’s father said in court Monday.
“Instead, he chose to prey on (my daughter) for his own sexual gratification,” he said.
The father told the court that the girl’s personality has fundamentally changed and faces taunts and ridicule at school because of Polzin’s actions.
While Polzin will head to jail for 90 days, “my daughter is serving a life sentence,” the father said.
Misfits Media is not naming the father in order to protect the identity of the girl Polzin abused.
Dressed in a black suit with short cropped hair, Polzin told Bartolemi that he wanted to take responsibility for his actions but that a new medication he was on at the time clouded his judgment.
“What does that have to do with setting up a phone and recording?” Bartolemi responded.
Judge Bartolemi said that he hopes with the passage of time, the girl may begin to trust again.
“That has been stripped away violently by your actions,” Bartolemi said in court.
While Polzin asked for an exception to a fifty mile travel restriction in order to continue working as a property manager for his father’s business in Northfield, Minn., Bartolemi denied the request.
“For the next 90 days, you’re just going to have to hang on,” Bartolemi told Polzin in court.
Several letters of support from Polzin's family members, friends and coworkers were also submitted to the court. Several of the letters asked for leniency because Polzin had repented to god.
Polzin’s probation officers will be allowed to search his property without notice, including his internet capable devices.
He was ordered to report to the workhouse on May 6.
Daniel Allard, of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office was the lead prosecutor on the case.
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