Judge orders subpoena of girl’s school records in hockey sex tape case

MOORHEAD - A Clay County judge has ordered prosecutors to subpoena the school records of a teenage girl at the heart of a child pornography case against two junior hockey players with the Lincoln (Nebraska) Stars.
In his order filed here Monday in Clay County District Court, Judge Michael Fritz stated that educational privacy rights can be overcome in certain circumstances.
Defense attorneys had asked for the girl’s school and disciplinary records as part of discovery in the case.
Lincoln Stars players Thomas Ryan Carey of Moorhead and Brandon Nicholas Smith of Castaic, California, are accused of making and distributing sex tapes via a cellphone that featured them with the then-15-year-old girl.
The two men believed the girl was 16 when she contacted them on social media and visited them in their motel room in Moorhead after a game against the Fargo Force in February 2014, their lawyers have claimed.
Defense attorneys have also painted the girl as the aggressor and said she intended to have sex with a member of each team in the U.S. Hockey League.
Minnesota law does not recognize mistake of age as a defense in child pornography crimes.
Prosecutor Pam Harris argued she didn’t have the means to force the girl’s school to release her records without the child’s or the parents’ permission, citing the Family Educational and Privacy Act.
The trial is set for Dec. 7.