Former church staff member pleads guilty to filming 13-year-old girl

MINNEAPOLIS –  A former staff member at Living Word Christian Center pleaded guilty to filming a 13-year-old girl getting changed without her knowledge.

Jason Gary Polzin, 50, of Prior Lake, entered his petition to plead guilty to interference with the privacy of a minor under 18 earlier this week in a Hennepin County Courtroom. He is scheduled to be sentenced April 27.

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 also agreed to no longer work in schools, according to his plea petition.

A stay of imposition postpones a sentence and reduces the charge to a lower level upon a successful probation period.

Polzin, a softball coach with the church, filmed the child while she was changing in his office prior to softball, according to Brooklyn Center police officer Colleen Fricke, who signed the criminal complaint against Polzin.

Fricke wrote that the girl noticed Polzin’s phone was still in the room while she was changing. When the girl inspected the phone, she found it was recording her and that the video showed Polzin positioning the phone to record her while she changed, according to Fricke. 

The girl deleted the video and confronted Polzin, who said it was an accident.

After the recording was reported to police, officers seized several electronic devices from Polzin’s home via a search warrant. 

A forensic analysis 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.

Daniel Allard, of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office was the lead prosecutor on the case.