Allison Leigh Schardin, 38, of Minneapolis wanted to be a singer and entertainer. Her whole life blew up this year.
She got her bachelor of arts at Concordia College in Music, Theatre and Communications. And attended the University of Minnesota where she took courses in music, vocal performance and earned a master’s degree.
She sang soprano for the Concordia Choir.
It is not easy to make it IN the music business and instead of singing and performing full time she worked as a waitress at Louis Ristorante & Bar for the last 10 years.
Of course she stopped working this year.
Allison Leigh Schardin
Between the time she first wanted to be a singer and when her world came crashing down, she married Anthony Schardin and had two kids.
In December, a month before her ruination, Anthony filed for divorce.
A New Try Gone Bad
In January they tried to patch things up and went to a local hotel for a weekend staycation with their two kids.
They arrived on Saturday Jan. 13. But it was not until after midnight that she ruined her life.
I’ve read dozens of stories about her for the events of the night made national news and not one story had any sympathy for Allison Leigh Schardin. Maybe she deserves none.
She was fighting with her husband, but that’s no excuse. She may have consumed alcohol but that doesn’t excuse her in the eyes of the law.
At the hotel, teenage hockey players from a Colorado 16U hockey team were in town to compete in a tournament.
The boys, born in 2008, were between 15 and 16 and enjoying the thrill of being put up in a hotel and feeling quite adult and important. They were ready to show off their athletic skills in Sunday’s competition and this was Saturday night. Dinner was over. They had a couple of hours to relax before 10 o’clock curfew. They descended to the hotel swimming pool, the hot tub and the sauna.
Bad Judgement Leads to Disaster
It was Allison’s misfortune that the road to reconciliation with her husband was not going smoothly. It is fair to say that it terminated with what happened that night.
Allison will be lucky if she even gets to see her kids after she gets out of prison.
That night she went to pool area. No one could really blame the boys for taking notice. She wanted to be noticed, she admitted that.
Today she stands charged with criminal sexual conduct in the third degree and criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree – two felonies that could land her in prison for 15 years – which ironically is the same age of two of the boys she came in contact with.
The Worst of Nights for Allison
It began in the sauna. She was flirtatious. The boys gathered round and took a photo with her to show they were quite grown up little men and they traded numbers.
One of the boys was in his room when his teammates sent him the photo of Allison with them and a message “you wouldn’t believe what happened” inviting him to come down to the pool.
In the probable cause statement filed in Minnesota’s 2nd District Court, the boy who got the photo was referred to as Victim 1. Allison left the sauna and descended into the hot tub. Victim 1 came and joined them.
She candidly told the boys she had marital problems and that she had sex with a hockey player, aged 18 or 20, several weeks before.
Maybe she knew the ages of the boys or maybe they did not tell her. Or she should have known they were between 15 and 16.
Age of Consent
She likely knew that at midnight the day a boy turned 16 in her state he was legal and that one minute before, when he was 15 years, 11 months, 30 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes, it was a disaster forever.
It does not matter in the eyes of the law, if a teen lies about his age. It is not a crime of intent but strictly of actual age. Whether she knew they were 15 or thought they were 16 is not relevant in the eyes of the law.
Husband Tried to Save Her
Just as the conversation with the boys became illuminated, an angel came in the form of her husband to try to save her from her fate. He came by the hot tub and said, “If you don’t come upstairs, our relationship is over.”
He might have added, had he been prescient that it was more than their relationship. Her whole life would be over.
It was 10 pm and the teens left, but three of them were enticed in the heat of passion which happens to 16 and even 15 year old boys to return. They snuck back to the pool area to meet her.
Once again, the angels tried to save her. Her husband came and seeing her with boys half her age, told her that if she did not leave at once their marriage was over.
Allison went back with her husband. At this point her life was not destroyed.
Rendezvous With Destruction
It is not clear who invited whom to meet three boys in their room. Some said Allison texted a lad via SnapChat saying she and her husband got into an argument and asked, “can I come into your room?”
Allison said the boys proposed she come to them.
It is not in dispute that Allison walked away from her husband and her two kids and in effect said farewell to them forever.
For the three boys, they perhaps imagined it was Christmas in January. Two of them were not yet 16 and one was over 16 and perfectly legal in Minnesota.
She came in. The boys knew they had a hockey game tomorrow and should be in bed and not with an older woman
She asked them sexual questions. They asked her to take her clothes off. She did not at first. She told them her age and asked them their ages. The prosecution made quite a big deal about her asking the boys their ages.
When confronted by the police about a week later, after going back to Colorado, the frightened boys, said they did not lie about their ages.
If they did not, they may be among the few who try to pick up an older woman who did not lie about their age. Either way Allison knew they were young enough to be her kids.
The Crime
But youth was not enough to stop the passion. Allison played cougar with two of the young men. She started talking about “sex and stuff,” and got into bed with two of the boys, asking them how sexually active they were.
They frolicked on the bed, and there was some touching, as the third teen, who happened to be 16, apparently watched.
According to the probable cause statement, Allison told police that while in the hotel room she kissed two of the boys. She then began sexual acts with two of the teens and asked them to perform sexual acts on her.
She said such things, they said, as “let’s just do more,” “let’s have sex,” “we’re already here,” “You already have a 38‐year‐old woman, a female in your bed, don’t you want to do more?”
At one point she asked if any of them had a condom. None did.
Victim 1 said Allison asked for “privacy” and after they were alone began pressuring him for more sexual contact. The boys told the police that Allison pushed for more than kissing and touching.
When she asked Victim 1 if he wanted to do more, he said sure with a voice that seemed clear.
When confronted later by police Victim 1 said he did not know how to say no. He said that in his head, his response was “not really” though he admitted he responded saying “sure,” though he “wasn’t totally on board with it.”
But he got at least partially on board and Allison chose to perform a little more with Victim 1 which ended perhaps too abruptly.
Victim 1 was embarrassed. The passion had died and when she asked for reciprocal efforts on his part, he was desirous of getting her out of the room and going to bed.
Victim 1 told police that he told Allison he had to get to bed because he had a game the next day and he did not want to have sex. She did not press further but got up and left.
Follow Up
Allison went back to her room and Sunday morning came. It would have been better if Allison had left the encounter with the boys to forever end the night before, as if it never happened.
The teens had a hockey game. She texted to ask if they were playing on a certain rink.
Saturday night was over. It was Sunday. They were playing on ice with skates and helmets in uniforms in a tournament they had worked all season to be good enough to play in.
Victim 1 was not eager to see the cougar. There were people watching the game and surely some might wonder who she was and where she came from and why she was friendly with them. They lied and told her they had already lost, no point in coming.
She came anyway.
When the cops later interviewed Victim 1, he told them that when she showed up at the game he was nervous and shaking because he wanted to leave what happened the night before in the past and she was trying to follow them.
“It was really creepy,” he said.
Of course, the worst of it was that his teammates in the room knew what happened and they told other guys who told other guys who told other guys and gals and maybe an adult or two and it became known really fast how Victim 1 had been wooed and won and how she came and lost and three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.
Police Move Fast
After the boys returned to Colorado, Allison texted Victim 1 who was upset.
She texted Victim 2, who had frolicked too. Allison became worried that Victim 1 would tell the police. She begged him not to tell. Victim 1 said he wouldn’t and told her not to contact him again then blocked her number.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County, it took eight days before police were notified that Allison had some sort of sexual contact with two 15-year-old hockey players at a hotel.
It took another eight days to arrest her, which police did on Feb 1.
After her arrest, Allison quite probably unadvisedly agreed to speak with cops. She waived her right to remain silent and admitted to joining three boys in a room and having some sexual contact with two of them.
She admitted she asked about a condom, but said if they had produced one she was not going to go through with it.
“I think I just, things were starting to progress and, um, I think I thought about it for a moment and then I just was like, yeah, no, that’s not …, and I think at that point it was pretty evident that (V1) was kind of uncomfortable,” the complaint read.
The Need for Age of Consent
Allison has no prior felony history. Now she faces a long prison term and a name forever tarnished. She will likely have to register as a sex offender when she gets out of prison.
There may be no way to prevent the exploitation of children from adults who would have sex with them but to set a hard line based on age.
And this must be geographic as determined by the sensibilities of the people who live and raise their children there.
In most of Europe the age of consent is 14 or 15 and in other places it is sometimes even younger and sometimes older. Sixteen might be the average around the world. But there is no doubt a double standard, the age of consent being more for the protection of girls than boys. But the law is the same for either gender and in America the age of consent is from 16-18 depending on the state.
The Case at Hand
And so to protect children the law must come down hard on Allison Leigh Schardin. She will pay and no doubt there will be some who will encourage the young hockey player to embrace his victimhood and get therapy and feel weak about it and maybe never recover. He is a victim now, and a brave survivor of sexual assault. The weaker he proffesses to be the braver he will be called.
Of course, he was stronger physically by far than Allison. He could have escaped if he wanted and indeed when he told her “no” she left.
In the eyes of the law he is a child with perhaps the body of a man. Yet if he is any kind of a man, or if he is ever to become one he will recover
On the other hand, Allison will not recover. Her dreams of being a singer, of making a name for her talent, or even a mother, a waitress or even a free and obscure person have vanished.
She will go to prison most likely for years and live in shame for the rest of her life and maybe never see her kids again.
Her life is shattered and there are a hundred stories about her that will not disappear from the web. It will be the first thing anyone reads if they search her name online and people will shun her. No one will trust their kids around her.
And one almost wonders that if she might learn her lesson and were there some way to know she would not repeat her mistake again if a little mercy is not indicated.
Sentencing Statement
No doubt the prosecutors will trot out Victim 1 to make a sentencing statement to the judge about how his life is ruined and how Allison should go to prison forever just as his innocence was stolen forever, or words to that effect.
But I would love to see him come to court and say, she made a mistake but let me show some charity. My life isn’t ruined because she touched me and wanted to have sex. I’m stronger than that.
If he suffers from any torment from the incident or more likely the criminal and public notice of it, the rumors and the stories, his opting not to play the weak victim for the prosecution’s delight and truly being the man the law said he was not by age permitted to be, I suspect that he will heal his discomfiture and improve his sullied reputation. If he does opt for mercy it will be a legacy that he will remember all his life and it will strengthen him.
If he tried to spare a woman, a fool maybe but not one who was trying to hurt him, just selfish and stupid, some pain and torment, it will help him more than speaking for her greater punishment.
He could come into court and say, a drop of sea spray is nothing to me but would drown a mosquito. Spare this woman. She has not harmed me. That would help the boy much more than the woman.
Consequences
Her life is ruined already. She must live with her infamy and walk in shadows shunned all the days of her life. The scarlet woman. Who seduced a boy, almost a man.
I wonder if that isn’t enough for the hasty crime.
It won’t please the prosecutors and all those who want to use Allison Leigh as the vile deterrent of other cougar predators, but one article ought to have been written to show that the punishment may be even more harsh in this instance than the solitary crime.
