The Sins of the Father: Hockey Dad Arrested After Blinding Opposing Goalie With Laser

To paraphrase, Sarah Palin: you know the difference between a pit bull and a Hockey Dad? A laser, apparently. In Boston, Joseph Cordes, 42, has been arrested for allegedly sitting in the stands with a laser that he was using to blind the goalie of his daughter’s opposing hockey team. His daughter was playing for Winthrop against Medway-Ashland in the Division 1 preliminary game when a parent spotted him with the laser. He has now been charged with disorderly conduct.

Cordes was asked to leave by an official at the game. Winthrop went on to win the game 3-1. Medway-Ashland demanded a replay of the game but league officials rejected the demand.

Cordes comes off as a male Wanda Holloway, the woman so obsessed with her middle school daughter’s cheerleading career that she tried to put out a hit on one of her daughter’s classmates as well as the cheerleader’s mother.

In this interview, Cordes says “I feel like a complete jerk. It was very stupid, completely immature for a 42-year-old man to be doing that.” Few arguments there.

Notably, an eighth grade goalie complained a year ago in a game against Winthrop that someone was flashing a laser pointer in her eyes.

In this case, witnesses have a video of Cordes pointing a laser in the eyes of Kathryn Hamer, the goalie for Medway/Ashland High School — shown here. Kathryn was temporarily blinded, which does raise a question of the charge. This seems to be a bit more than disorderly conduct. If he blinded Kathryn, it would appear a form of assault and in the very least endangering the girl who could have hurt herself in the midst of this very physical sport. The problem for the prosecutors is that the blindness was only lasting for a few second at a time. Kathryn described it as like looking into the sun.

The fact is that the greatest punishment for an act like this will be found in the court of public opinion. The tragedy is that his daughter is likely to face much of this criticism at school.

What do you think of the charge? Disorderly conduct probably falls about right in terms of potential sentencing. It allows for what is usually a short period of jail, though that is often waived in favor of probation. It does leave a criminal record. Cordes was previously arrested across the street from the hockey rink for breaking into a CVS and being caught with possession of heroin. Notably, he was sent for psychiatric evaluation at that time.

Source: Daily Mail