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One of three high school basketball coaches in the St-Laurent neighborhood arrested several years ago following an investigation into allegations that girls were sexually abused will plead guilty, a Montreal court said Monday.

Charles-Xavier Boislard, 45, of Brossard, a former coach at École St-Laurent, was scheduled to stand trial over a seven-day period, but prosecutor Jérôme Laflamme told Quebec District Court Judge Éric de Champlain that the accused would plead guilty on Tuesday for one of the four charges he faces. Laflamme said Boislard’s attorney, Eddy Ménard, contacted him Friday and said his client was ready to plead guilty to one count of sexual exploitation.

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The victim was over the age of consent, which is 16 in Canada, when she was abused, but Boislard was in a position of authority over her when the crime occurred.

“The only thing that separates us is the age of the victim when it happened,” Laflamme told the judge, explaining why Boislard was not prepared to plead guilty Monday.

Laflamme said he and Ménard still couldn’t agree on when the sexual exploitation took place. He said if the girl was 16 at the time, then she was a student at the school when it happened. If she was 17, Laflamme said, then she was out of high school, but Boislard was still in a position of authority over her, possibly through the work he did at the school with younger basketball players.

Both attorneys also said they could not agree on the type of sentence Boislard should receive, so they would not make a joint recommendation. They asked the judge to order a pre-sentence report before the case moves to the sentencing phase.

Two other coaches at the same school — Daniel Lacasse, 46, and Robert Luu, 34, both of Laval — were arrested at the same time as Boislard in 2022 following an investigation by Montreal police. Lacasse’s trial began in October and will resume in January. In that case, Lacasse testified and said he had a sexual relationship with the plaintiff after she became an adult and while she was in college and he was no longer her coach. When the plaintiff testified, she said they began having sex while she was a junior in high school and while Lacasse was her coach.

The plaintiff in Lacasse’s lawsuit said she and other girls at the school regularly had jobs during the summer, such as helping out at basketball camps held at the school.

Luu’s trial is scheduled to begin in January.

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