On Tuesday, Eric Pohorecky’s lawyer withdrew three days before his scheduled hearing due to a “breakdown in solicitor-client relationship.”
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A sentencing hearing for a Saskatoon man convicted of sexually touching an 11-year-old girl has been adjourned until October as Eric Michael Pohorecky looks for a new lawyer.
On Tuesday, defence lawyer Aleida Oberholzer confirmed she withdrew as Pohorecky’s lawyer — three days before his Sept. 27 hearing — due to a “breakdown in solicitor-client relationship.”
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The section of the Law Society of Saskatchewan’s Code of Professional Conduct states a lawyer may withdraw “if a lawyer is deceived by his client, the client refuses to accept and act upon the lawyer’s advice on a significant point, a client is persistently unreasonable or uncooperative in a material respect, or the lawyer is facing difficulty in obtaining adequate instructions from the client.”
Pohorecky, 64, was found guilty on June 28 of sexual assault and touching a child for a sexual purpose on three separate occasions in 2020 after a judge-alone trial was held in May at Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench.
Justice David Gereke said the Crown proved he squeezed the girl’s buttocks while walking past her in his kitchen, reached under a blanket and touched her thigh while she was on his couch and slid his hand across her breasts after reaching over her lap to set down groceries while she was seated in his van.
Pohorecky took the stand and denied intentionally touching the girl, who he said was often at his house during the timeframe of the offences. Some details about how Pohorecky and the girl knew each other were withheld to comply with a standard publication ban on the girl’s identity due to her age and the nature of the charges.
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Oberholzer said on Tuesday, Pohorecky told court that he hoped she would stay on as his lawyer, but Oberholzer indicated there was no way to salvage the relationship.
The sentencing hearing has been rescheduled to Oct. 11. Pohorecky will remain out of custody until then.
He’s been out on bail since he was charged in April 2022 with four counts of sexual assault against four girls under the age of 16 between 2016 and 2021.
The next month, he was charged with another count of sexual assault and sexual interference after further investigation. One set of charges was stayed at the conclusion of his preliminary hearing last year, and he is scheduled for trial on the remaining three charges in October.
The court confirmed the trial hasn’t been adjourned at this time.
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