Top basketball recruit facing felony sex charges
Kansas basketball prospect Zach Harvey may be about to go from Rock Chalk Jayhawk to breaking rocks and marking his days in prison with chalk.
According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, the 17-year-old Harvey faces two felony sex crime charges in Sedgwick County, specifically the sexual exploitation of an underage girl.
Police in Wichita believe Harvey was in possession of a sexually explicit image or video of a child under the age of 18 — or, more bluntly, child pornography — on March 23, 2017, when Harvey was 16.
He is also charged with promotion of a child to perform sexually explicit acts on a girl who was, at the time, 15 years old.
The crime is a Class 5-D felony, which under Kansas state sentencing guidelines carries a prison term of 50 to 55 months and can also include a fine of up to $300,000 as a level 1-5 non-drug felony for each count.
If convicted on both counts, Harvey might not be in position to play basketball for anyone for nine years.
Harvey has not yet entered a plea, and for now, Kansas is handling the case through its juvenile court system.
Harvey’s co-defendants, Dylan Vincent and Dalyn Johnson, have also not yet entered pleas in the case.
The hearing, originally scheduled for Thursday, has now been delayed to May 29.
Harvey holds offers from Kansas, Oregon, Oklahoma, UCLA and several other schools; there has not yet been word whether any of those schools have rescinded or will rescind those offers in light of this case.
247 Sports has Harvey ranked No. 35 in the 2019 recruiting class and second in the state of Kansas. They predict, provided these legal troubles don’t interfere, a 100 percent chance that Harvey will choose to stay in state and play for Bill Self and the Jayhawks.
Torrey Head, Harvey’s coach at Hayden High in Topeka, told the Capital-Journal that he wasn’t aware of the charges against Harvey and wouldn’t comment until he had more information about the case.
Police have not yet explained to the media how they came to believe Harvey was in possession of the child pornography in question.
They have, however, subpoenaed Snap Inc., maker of the Snapchat app, which presumes that the pictures or video were sent via its service.
The Capital-Journal reported earlier this year that girls at Seaman High School in Topeka said they were coerced into sending sexually explicit images of themselves to boys.
It’s unclear whether this is a similar situation.
Harvey scored 23.1 points per game this season as a high school junior, including 34 points in the state championship game his team won 65-57.
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