Suspended Ottawa Senators Assistant General Manager Randy Lee is facing a new count of harassment in New York.
According to the New York State Unified Court System website, this latest count of harassment in the second degree was laid June 25. The site describes it as "not an arrest charge, not an arraignment charge."
Lee’s next scheduled court date is July 6 in Buffalo, NY.
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office say the new charge is connected with the same incident and the same complainant as the first.
Lee is accused of inappropriately touching and making lewd comments toward a 19-year-old male hotel shuttle driver while in Buffalo for the NHL's scouting combine in late May. He was arrested May 31 and charged with the first count of second-degree harassment the following day.
DA spokesperson Kait Munro says this latest count is based on a different subsection of the law.
“Mr. Lee was arraigned under Subsection 1 of Harassment in the Second Degree – ‘He or she strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects such other person to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same,’" Munro said in an email. “The new charge is under Subsection 3 – ‘He or she engages in a course of conduct or repeatedly commits acts which alarm or seriously annoy such other person and which serve no legitimate purpose.’”
Lee will be formally charged with the new count of second-degree harassment July 6.
Under the New York penal code, harassment is considered a violation, and not a crime like a felony or misdemeanor. Lee could face up to 15 days in jail upon conviction but Erie County District Attorney John Flynn has said he doesn't expect to pursue jail time in this case.
Lee was suspended by the Senators June 15, pending a review following his next court date.
With files from the Associated Press.