Courtesy: Salt Lake County
Update 5/30/2019: all charges against Bonacki have been dropped and the case dismissed without prejudice due to lack of evidence. You can see our follow-up story here.
Former Park City, Utah swimming coach Kent Allen Bonacki, 32, was arrested on October 25th on 10 counts of dealing in harmful materials to a minor and 2 counts of misdimeanor drug possession.
According to a probable cause statement filed by investigators in the case, he was chatting with someone he thought to be a 13-year-old girl in the chat app Whisper and sent 10 photos of male genitalia. One of the photos includes a hand that police believe belongs to a juvenile, and when asked by the person he was chatting with, Bonacki said it belonged to a 15-year-old student. The chat was titled “bored 9th grade teacher.”
Bonacki told police at the time of his arrest that “he downloaded the photos off the internet and sent them over the chat,” the report states.
Bonacki was employed by the Park City School District from 2010-2014 and also was previously a coach with the Park City Swim Club, where he worked with the pre-competition team. The district says that he hasn’t been a coach for 8 years.
The two drug charges (possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia) are misdemeanors. The dealing in harmful materials to a minor charges are each third degree felonies, which in Utah is punishable by a mandatory fine of not less than $1,000 per charge and incarceration for a term of not less than 14 days.