Reid Boucher pleads guilty to sexual assault of a minor.

Will justice be served?

Jonathan Larrivee
Jonathan Larrivee
Published 2 years ago
Reid Boucher pleads guilty to sexual assault of a minor.
Norm Hall/NHLI/Getty

We have a very disturbing story to share with you today, one that unfortunately does not appear to have a happy ending.

According to a report from the Detroit Free Press, former National Hockey League forward Reid Boucher has plead guilty to the sexual assault of a minor in Washtenaw County Trial Court. The plea deal was entered on the 13th of December and in spite of the very serious crimes involved in this matter it sounds like Boucher will face no jail time and, perhaps even more shocking, not even so much as a blemish on his public record either.

The assaults, which were numerous in nature, took place all the way back in 2011 when Boucher was living with a billet family as a part of the USA Hockey National Development Program. Boucher, who at the time was 17 years old, sexually assaulted a 12 year old girl that was his billet sister at the time of the assaults. It's hard to imagine the horror that the family must have felt upon learning that a young man they were helping had committed such heinous acts against their family, but unfortunately it seems they will not be getting any measure of justice here.

Although Boucher was originally charged with first degree criminal sexual conduct, an extremely serious offense that carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, a plea deal has completely changed the picture when it comes to his punishment. During a December hearing Circuit Judge Patrick Conlin agreed to let Boucher enter a plea deal for the charge of third degree criminal sexual assault involving sexual penetration with an individual between the ages of 13 and 16 years old. I don't know how that makes any sense given that the girl was reportedly 12 at the time, but I'm not a lawyer or a judge.

Additionally the judge agreed to sentence him through the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, and under that act he will be sentenced with no upfront jail time and will have no blemish on his record once his sentence has been completed.

The victim in this case has spoken publicly and you won't be surprised to learn that she expressed her 'disgust' and this decision, feeling that Boucher is effectively going unpunished for the irreparable harm that he caused both her as an individual and her family as a whole.

"Him serving probation for doing this just - it feels like a slap in the face because I lost all these years of my life to the trauma and the harm that he inflicted on me and my family," said the victim. "And it completely destroyed my family for a really long time"

According to the Detroit Free Press, USA Hockey was reportedly notified of the incident in 2011 but instead of treating the matter with the seriousness it warranted, they simply move Boucher from the billet home he was in and placed him somewhere else.

Boucher is expected to be sentenced on the 31st of January, where hopefully justice will prevail.

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