Toronto, ON – (BasketballBuzz) – Toronto Basketball Coach Jordan Cristoferi-Paolucci Founder and Director of the Etobicoke Basketball Association has been charged with multiple counts of child pornography.
According to police reports released today Paolucci’s home was searched on Wednesday May 29, 2013 by the Child Exploitation division and now faces 10 charges in connection to child pornography and luring allegations.
Police allege the accused received images from boys under 18 years-old and compensated them for the pictures.
A court appearance has be scheduled for July 12, 2013.
Cristoferi−Paolucci, (24), is a coach for the Etobicoke Basketball Association, Founder and Director of the BOLT Basketball Elite Development Program, Regional Stakeholder Representative – Ranking and Seeding Committee Member for the Ontario Basketball Association, previously a coach for the Toronto Raptors Basketball Academy and an official for the Toronto Association of Basketball Officials (TABO), Ottawa Valley Board of Approved Basketball Officials (OVBABO) and the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials (IAABO).
The charges come at a time when Canadian Basketball can’t seem to get enough praise. It seems like day-in, day-out the news gets better, unfortunately, situations like these are black eyes to the Toronto basketball community at large and demands for a call of action from leadership at the top.
In 2012 the CBC’s (Canada’s Public Broadcaster) Fifth Estate program went undercover and investigated the Toronto/Canadian AAU Basketball scene focusing on Ro Russell and the Grassroots program.
The documentary seemed to specifically target Russell and drew plenty of criticism all-around, specifically for failing to look at other areas, programs which were perhaps violating, or in this case putting innocent children and their families in contact with what we will refer to as extreme shady behaviour.
Although the allegations/exposure against Grassroots and Ro Russell we’re unrelated to anything like what Paolucci and the Etobicoke Thunder Association are facing, it certainly opened everybody’s eyes to what’s becoming a growing problem in the Canadian basketball community.
There’s absolutely no doubt that this case will further raise the question, “What are the National and Provincial basketball organizations doing to ensure that coaches and programs are compliant, properly screened prior to starting out in what seems to be an endless amount of basketball programs that are popping up faster than dandelions across Canada.
According to additional reports, Jane Shapiro, a spokesperson for the Etobicoke Basketball Association, said the organization sent out an email to the parents of all children playing for Etobicoke Basketball first thing Friday morning, notifying them of the situation and assuring them that the accused is no longer coaching for them.”
“The association is deeply troubled by the events surrounding Mr. Paolucci,” she said. “As soon as we became aware of this matter, Mr. Paolucci was suspended and is no longer working for the association.