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ALPENA -- Aaron Pokorzynski, 37, had a hearing on Monday in the 26th Circuit Court in Alpena. A recently filed pre-trial motion was discussed, as well as other motions that the defense may file in the future.
Pokorzynski is charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
The first-degree charges refer to a case where Pokorzynski allegedly had sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old child while serving as their tennis instructor at the APlex in 2012.
The second-degree charge involves an incident in 2021 with a separate individual who he was also an instructor for.
The trial was originally scheduled to begin on Jan. 13 this year. It was moved to Oct. 13 after Pokorzynski’s attorney at the time, Matt Wojda, filed an application for leave to appeal, which paused any further hearings until the Michigan Court of Appeals could respond.
The application for leave to appeal was ultimately denied. In a leave to appeal, an attorney asks the appellate court to consider an appeal as opposed to appealing directly. An attorney must file a leave to appeal when the case is still ongoing.
Pokorzynski switched attorneys to Gary Springstead, who is based in Fremont, MI, as of June 3, according to court records.
Pokorzynski is currently scheduled for trial on Jan. 26 through Jan. 29.
At Monday's hearing, Springstead said he had filed a pre-trial motion and sent it to the prosecutor's office and the court that day. The motion challenged the particularity of the search warrant.
Attorneys file motions to ask a judge to make a ruling, issue an order, or take a specific action during a legal case.
Springstead said he may file additional motions about 404(b) issues related to the other case, a request that there would be a more particular statement of the time frame of events, and a motion to challenge reference to the "victim" as opposed to the "accuser" or the "complainant." Springstead said it seems like there is a lot of rumor and innuendo, and he may need to file a motion in limine regarding the limits of hearsay and someone’s personal knowledge of an event.
Typically, evidence from prior acts cannot be used during trial, however, under what’s called rule 404(b), evidence from prior acts can be submitted if they are used as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, scheme, plan, or system in doing an act, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident.
Prior acts cannot be submitted if they are used as evidence of the defendant’s character.
Judge Ed Black said he is not moving theJanuary trial date, unless there is a stipulation by counsel.
"We plan on that," Springstead said.
Black said that any motions need to be filed "pronto." He said he thought the timeframe for the submission of motions was addressed at a previous hearing.
Alpena County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Alyssa Miller said that the court had given a time frame at a previous hearing.
"Just for the record, when we were here on August 10th, you did give them until September 21st to have any motions filed," she said. "When we were last in court on Sept. 8 there were no motions filed."
She said any motions were supposed to be heard at Monday's hearing.
Miller informed Springstead that there were previously motions filed to not refer to the victim and that was denied by the court. There was also a motion filed to admit any previous acts, that was granted except for one part.
Springstead said he would check with prior counsel on what motions were already filed.
Pokorzynski's next hearing will be at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 7.