Latest news with #McLeod
CBS News
15 minutes ago
- Sport
- CBS News
5 former players of Canada's junior hockey team acquitted by judge in sexual assault case
An Ontario judge acquitted five former members of Canada's world junior hockey team on Thursday in their sexual assault case, saying the complainant's allegations lacked the credibility needed to justify the charges. Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said prosecutors could not meet the onus of proof for the charges against Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote. The players' identities were made public when they were charged in early 2024. At the time, four of them played in the NHL — Dube for the Calgary Flames, Hart for the Philadelphia Flyers, and McLeod and Foote for the New Jersey Devils. Formenton had previously played for the Ottawa Senators before joining a Swiss team. All went on indefinite leave and none is on an NHL roster or has an active contract with a team in the league. All five players had pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in an encounter that took place in a London, Ontario, hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018. Years of speculation regarding the allegations — fueled by a lawsuit settlement, parliamentary hearings and revived investigations by the police and Hockey Canada, along with an NHL investigation — all preceded a complex trial earlier this year that included a mistrial and the dismissal of the jury, leaving the verdict to Carroccia. Carroccia explained her reasoning for the acquittals in detail over the course of five hours, highlighting the complainant's "tendency to blame others" for inconsistencies in her allegations. She also said the woman went to "great lengths" to point out that she was really drunk through the course of the night, but that is not supported by surveillance video from a bar and hotel that night and the testimony of others. McLeod was also acquitted — and pleaded not guilty — to a separate count of being a party to the offense, an unusual application of a charge that is more typically seen in murder cases. The players, who are now between the ages of 25 and 27, were in London at the time for a gala and golf tournament marking their championship victory. The woman testified in May that she was naked, drunk and scared when four of the men showed up unexpectedly in her room at the Delta Hotel London Armouries and felt the only "safe" option was to do what they wanted. Prosecutors argued the players did what they wanted without taking steps to ensure she was voluntarily consenting to sexual acts. "I made the choice to dance with them and drink at the bar, I did not make the choice to have them do what they did back at the hotel," she testified. Defense attorneys cross-examined her for days and suggested she actively participated in or initiated sexual activity because she wanted a "wild night." Two short videos of the complainant taken by McLeod the night of the encounter were played in court. In one, the woman says it was "all consensual," though she told the court that wasn't how she truly felt. Protesters gathered outside a packed London courthouse on Thursday morning, holding signs that signaled support for the complainant. The Associated Press and other news organizations do not identify sexual assault accusers unless they have granted permission to do so, which she has not. The public didn't learn of the allegations for years. Police closed their initial investigation without charges in early 2019, but the complainant sued Hockey Canada in 2022. The organization settled the lawsuit amid intense scrutiny that cost it sponsors, but police reopened their investigation. The NHL launched its own investigation in 2022. Officials pledged to release the findings, though Commissioner Gary Bettman said in February that would depend on what the league can say given the legal proceedings.
National Post
26 minutes ago
- National Post
How Hockey Canada sexual assault case became a flashpoint for perceived toxic culture in junior hockey
If there was an apt metaphor to describe the Hockey Canada sexual assault case, it might be a tiny snowball suddenly pushed down a very steep, snowy mountain. Article content By the time it reached the bottom – culminating in Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia's verdicts in the case Thursday – the snowball had picked up so much speed and size, it ultimately became an avalanche of controversy and public outcry over the perceived toxic culture inside our national obsession. Article content Article content The much-publicized trial tried to get to the bottom of what happened inside the Delta Armouries hotel room between a now-27-year-old woman, her identity protected by court order, and a group of Team Canada world junior hockey players who were in London on June 18 and 19, 2018. Article content Article content The players were together for a Hockey Canada gala for the first time since they'd won gold medals in Buffalo months earlier. The woman, then 20, said she met accused Michael McLeod and other players at Jack's bar on Richmond Row and returned to the hotel with McLeod for consensual sex, before more men came into the room after a night of drinking. Article content The sordid details were widely reported and debated over the eight weeks of trial. Ever since McLeod, 27, Carter Hart, 26, Alex Formenton, 25, Dillon Dube, 26, and Cal Foote, 26, were charged in January 2023 – and when London police Chief Thai Truong apologized to 'the victim' for how long it had taken to reach that point – the case hasn't been as black-and-white as a referee's jersey. Article content Article content The key issue at trial was subjective consent, but the details of what happened in Room 209 are hazy. What went on was clearly offside, but just like in hockey, offside doesn't usually result in game misconducts. Article content How a closed, eight-month London police investigation by experienced officers in 2018 ended in no charges, only to be re-opened in 2022 with charges laid, could arguably be linked to the pressure put on a damaged Hockey Canada suddenly bombarded with bad publicity, abandonment by sponsors and a public shocked over allegations that amounted to gang rape in a civil statement of claim. Article content Some of that was hinted at in Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas's ruling during pre-trial motions late last year to exclude statements from the trial made to Hockey Canada by three of the accused players interviewed in 2022. Article content The Crown wanted to use the statements that had been obtained through a warrant to highlight inconsistencies. Thomas denied the request, saying the statements offended fair trial interests. Article content Revealed during the pre-trial motion and the trial was that despite the players being cleared by the police in early 2019, Hockey Canada chose to settle a $3.55-million civil suit launched against it, the Canadian Hockey League and eight 'John Does' by the woman in April 2022 a month later for an undisclosed amount, using a fund partially made up through registration fees set aside to handle sexual abuse claims – and without telling the players about it or giving them an opportunity to defend themselves. Article content The complainant admitted during her lengthy trial testimony that after the civil case was settled and once she proffered a statement drafted by her lawyers to Hockey Canada in 2022 – after avoiding them for three years – she thought 'this was done. I thought it was case closed.' Article content But by then, the allegations which were never proven in a civil court had been widely publicized and the public shock and anger picked up speed. A Parliamentary committee in July 2022 wanted some answers from the hockey organization. Hockey Canada said it would co-operate with the police. Article content Hockey Canada published an 'Open Letter to Canadians,' acknowledging they were 'angry and disappointed in Hockey Canada – rightfully so.' Article content Even though it had conducted its own independent investigation in 2018, the organization apologized, saying it had 'failed Canadians' and hadn't done enough to address what happened 'or to end the culture of toxic behaviour within our game.' Article content Hockey Canada changed its code of conduct and pledged to re-open its investigation, requiring all players to participate in the probe or face lifetime bans from Hockey Canada teams, Olympics, world championships, tournaments, games and coaching at all levels – even teams involving the players' future children. Article content The discussions were confidential, unless circumstances changed. Those who didn't cooperate would be 'named and shamed.' This had to have shaken the players, who had spent the bulk of their young lifetimes pursuing their professional hockey dreams. Article content Toronto lawyer Danielle Robitaille was the third-party who headed up the 2018 Hockey Canada investigation, which she was careful to keep separate from the police probe. She stood it down in July 2018 until the police investigation was over after talking to several players. Article content Her only compliance was to pass on now-retired London police Det. Stephen Newton's contact information should any of the players want to talk to him. McLeod, Formenton, Dube and Foote all made voluntary statements to Newton in the fall of 2018 before he closed the case in February 2019. Article content Once the case was closed, Robitaille only needed to speak to the complainant to complete her report. However, texts, emails and phone calls to the woman went unanswered and in September 2020, on the advice of Hockey Canada, she ended her investigation, Thomas noted in his decision. Article content Robitaille, who testified before the Parliamentary committee, was called on to complete her work in 2022. Thomas pointed out she had new 'marching orders' and a new 'tool' in the code of conduct that obligated the players to cooperate in any investigation related to any breach in Hockey Canada's policies. Article content The new rule bypassed the right for any player to have a hearing before any disciplinary action. 'Hockey Canada effectively imposed disciplinary measures without due process,' Thomas wrote in his decision. Article content The lawyers for the players cried foul about the mandatory Hockey Canada interviews, calling them compelled, involuntary and forced. Robitaille reminded them of the potential lifetime ban. Article content 'In her evidence (at the pre-trial motion), Ms. Robitaille agreed that 'naming and shaming' the applicants would associate them with the allegations of 'gang rape' that had surfaced and would have a devastating effect on their reputations and careers,' Thomas wrote in his decision, adding the public would see how Hockey Canada collected the statements as unfair if they were presented at the trial. Article content Meanwhile, the public began to speculate which players were involved. The London police re-opened the case later in July 2022 and Thomas noted that 'one of the fresh investigative avenues considered' was to get the Hockey Canada files through a court order. Article content The investigating officer later testified at the trial that the complainant 'was actually quite upset' when the police told her they were reviving the investigation, and surmised that it was 'opening some wounds she was trying to close.' Article content Article content Then, in early August 2022, a Hockey Canada lawyer indicated the organization would waive privilege and give their file to the police without the need of a production order. Robitaille was upset with Hockey Canada's position. The police declined the offer and told Robitaille and Hockey Canada that 'they now had reasonable and probable grounds to believe that several players had committed sexual assault' and would seek the court order. Article content 'Ms. Robitaille did not disclose this fact to the defendants before interviewing them,' Thomas wrote. Article content It was clear by the fall of 2022 that the suspect players weren't giving statements to the police. But Robitaille interviewed the players anyway, knowing it was likely the police would succeed in obtaining her file, Thomas wrote. Article content Robitaille was under pressure because the investigation had taken time away from her law practice. She agreed that the interviews be done with lawyers present and only handwritten notes taken, which Thomas said 'would likely be vague, incomplete and open to conjecture.' Article content Thomas rejected a Crown application to have Robitaille made a 'person of authority' for purposes of the trial. He also rejected the defence assertion that her investigation was aimed at assisting the police. Article content On Oct. 21, 2022, Superior Court Justice Michael Carnegie issued a production order for the Hockey Canada investigative file. By then, Robitaille had interviewed McLeod, Formenton and Dube. Her investigative file was passed on to the police on Nov. 17, 2022. Article content
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hockey Canada players acquitted of sexual assault in 2018 case
Five former members of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team were found not guilty of sexual assault on Thursday, July 24, after a trial in London, Ontario, with a judge saying she didn't find the complainant's evidence "credible or reliable." 'I cannot rely upon the evidence of (the accuser) and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me," Justice Maria Carroccia said, per the Athletic. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were charged with sexual assault. McLeod faced a second charge of being a party to the offense, and he was also found not guilty of that charge. All had pleaded not guilty. Hart was the only defendant who testified. Carroccia rendered the ruling on Thursday, spelling out her reasoning. Juries had been dismissed on two occasions, once after an early mistrial was declared in the eight-week trial, and it was decided that the judge would rule on the case. The players were in London in June 2018 for a Hockey Canada gala honoring the gold medal-winning world junior championship team. The tournament is for under-20 players. Police say the alleged assaults took place in a hotel room after the defendants had met the woman, then 20, at a downtown bar. According to Canadian network TSN, the woman testified that she had consensual sex with McLeod and after she went to the bathroom, she saw him texting. He left the room and soon returned with two others, she said. Others also later came into the room. 'I shut down and let my body do what it needed to do to keep me safe," she told the court, per the network. "It felt like the safe thing to do was give them what they were wanting." But the judge said, "In this case, I have found actual consent not vitiated by fear," The Athletic reported. Carroccia addressed consent videos that McLeod recorded with the woman. The judge said the woman "did not display any signs of intoxication" in the videos and had "no difficulty speaking," per CBC. Carroccia said she believed the woman exaggerated her level of intoxication. CBC also said the judge noted the woman talked in court about telling "her truth," not "the truth." History of the investigation The London police department's initial investigation closed in February 2019 without any charges. It was reopened in July 2022, two months after TSN reported that May that Hockey Canada paid an undisclosed settlement to a woman who alleged in a $3.55 million lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted by eight players in a hotel room. The players were charged in February 2024. Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann of the police department's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section said at the time that additional witnesses were spoken to and additional evidence was collected, starting in 2022. "I can confirm that some of this evidence was not available when the investigation concluded in 2019," she said in a news conference. "This is one investigation, not two. The evidence that was collected in 2018 and 2019 was used in combination with newly gathered evidence to form reasonable and probable grounds to charge these five individuals with sexual assault." The NHL conducted its own investigation but said it would not reveal its findings until after the legal case was completed. Commissioner Gary Bettman had called the allegations "abhorrent." All but Formenton were with NHL teams at the time they were charged and took leaves of absences. Their teams cut them loose in June 2024 by not giving them qualifying offers, making them free agents. McLeod, now 27, played for the New Jersey Devils, Hart, 26, for the Philadelphia Flyers, Dubé, 27, for the Calgary Flames and Foote, 26, played for three NHL teams, mostly recently the Devils. Formenton, 25, played for the Ottawa Senators until 2021-22. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hockey Canada trial: Five players acquitted of sexual assault
The Star
43 minutes ago
- Sport
- The Star
Judge finds five former players not guilty of sexual assault in Hockey Canada trial
Dillon Dube arrives at court as a judge prepares to announce the verdict in the trial against five teammates from Canada's 2018 gold medal–winning world junior hockey team, charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room, at the Superior Court of Justice in London, Ontario, Canada, July 24, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio (Reuters) -Five former members of Canada's 2018 world junior ice hockey team were found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room that year, a judge declared on Thursday, according to CBC News. The charges against Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart and Cal Foote stemmed from an encounter in a hotel room in the Canadian city of London after a Hockey Canada gala to celebrate their world junior championship victory. All five former National Hockey League players faced one count of sexual assault while McLeod faced an additional count of being a party to an offence. They all pleaded not guilty. McLeod was also found not guilty of the additional charge. When the charges were announced in January 2024, McLeod and Foote were with the New Jersey Devils, Dube was with the Calgary Flames, Hart was with the Philadelphia Flyers while Formenton was playing in Switzerland. The trial, which began in April, has faced many disruptions including a mistrial and two dismissed juries before a decision to proceed to a judge-alone trial. A police investigation into the alleged incident was closed without charges in February 2019, but investigators reopened it in July 2022 in response to public outrage over reports that Hockey Canada used players' registration fees to pay an undisclosed settlement to the woman who made the accusations. The scandal prompted the Canadian federal government to freeze Hockey Canada's funding for 10 months while a number of major companies either paused or canceled their sponsorships with the national governing body. Amid the scandal, Hockey Canada said it would no longer use the fund financed by player registration fees to settle sexual assault claims, and the organization's CEO and board of directors stepped down. (Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Nia Williams and Caroline Stauffer)
USA Today
44 minutes ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Hockey Canada players acquitted of sexual assault in 2018 case
Five former members of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team were found not guilty of sexual assault on Thursday, July 24, after a trial in London, Ontario, with a judge saying she didn't find the complainant's evidence "credible or reliable." 'I cannot rely upon the evidence of (the accuser) and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me," Justice Maria Carroccia said, per the Athletic. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were charged with sexual assault. McLeod faced a second charge of being a party to the offense, and he was also found not guilty of that charge. All had pleaded not guilty. Hart was the only defendant who testified. Carroccia rendered the ruling on Thursday, spelling out her reasoning. Juries had been dismissed on two occasions, once after an early mistrial was declared in the eight-week trial, and it was decided that the judge would rule on the case. The players were in London in June 2018 for a Hockey Canada gala honoring the gold medal-winning world junior championship team. The tournament is for under-20 players. Police say the alleged assaults took place in a hotel room after the defendants had met the woman, then 20, at a downtown bar. According to Canadian network TSN, the woman testified that she had consensual sex with McLeod and after she went to the bathroom, she saw him texting. He left the room and soon returned with two others, she said. Others also later came into the room. 'I shut down and let my body do what it needed to do to keep me safe," she told the court, per the network. "It felt like the safe thing to do was give them what they were wanting." But the judge said, "In this case, I have found actual consent not vitiated by fear," The Athletic reported. Carroccia addressed consent videos that McLeod recorded with the woman. The judge said the woman "did not display any signs of intoxication" in the videos and had "no difficulty speaking," per CBC. Carroccia said she believed the woman exaggerated her level of intoxication. CBC also said the judge noted the woman talked in court about telling "her truth," not "the truth." History of the investigation The London police department's initial investigation closed in February 2019 without any charges. It was reopened in July 2022, two months after TSN reported that May that Hockey Canada paid an undisclosed settlement to a woman who alleged in a $3.55 million lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted by eight players in a hotel room. The players were charged in February 2024. Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann of the police department's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section said at the time that additional witnesses were spoken to and additional evidence was collected, starting in 2022. "I can confirm that some of this evidence was not available when the investigation concluded in 2019," she said in a news conference. "This is one investigation, not two. The evidence that was collected in 2018 and 2019 was used in combination with newly gathered evidence to form reasonable and probable grounds to charge these five individuals with sexual assault." The NHL conducted its own investigation but said it would not reveal its findings until after the legal case was completed. Commissioner Gary Bettman had called the allegations "abhorrent." All but Formenton were with NHL teams at the time they were charged and took leaves of absences. Their teams cut them loose in June 2024 by not giving them qualifying offers, making them free agents. McLeod, now 27, played for the New Jersey Devils, Hart, 26, for the Philadelphia Flyers, Dubé, 27, for the Calgary Flames and Foote, 26, played for three NHL teams, mostly recently the Devils. Formenton, 25, played for the Ottawa Senators until 2021-22.
