Latest news with #Robitaille
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
A 15-Year-Old Climbed into an Abandoned Well Shaft to Save Their Dogs. Then They Also Got Trapped
A 15-year-old in California became trapped '15-20 feet' below ground after descending into an abandoned well shaft to rescue their two family dogs on May 24 Emergency workers were quickly called to the scene, where they determined a 'vertical rope rescue' was required The teen and both pets were ultimately rescued unharmedA California teen got trapped in an abandoned well shaft while trying to rescue their family dogs — and was thankfully rescued by emergency responders. The incident occurred at about 6:55 p.m. local time on Saturday, May 24, when Nevada County Consolidated Fire Rescue (NCCFR) 'responded to a 911 call reporting a 15-year-old juvenile and two dogs trapped in an abandoned well shaft near the 13000 block of La Barr Meadows Road,' per an official NCCFR press release shared on Facebook. A video shared alongside the release shows a team of emergency workers pulling one of the dogs up via a system of ropes. A woman could be heard cheering and saying, 'I'm so happy!' once the dog was securely on solid ground. According to the release, the teen had descended into the shaft about '15-20 feet' to help the two pets but was subsequently unable to climb out. NCCFR unit 84 was promptly deployed, along with partner agencies from Grass Valley Fire. "Upon assessment, our team determined that the terrain and shaft depth required a vertical rope rescue operation," Jason Robitaille, NCCFR's Fire Chief, said, per the release. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "Safety was our top priority, and we implemented a systematic approach to bring all three victims to the surface safely,' he added. The department said the rescue took approximately one hour of 'careful maneuvering,' at which point the teen and two dogs 'were successfully brought to the surface without serious injury.' Paramedics evaluated the teen on the scene and determined they were unharmed, though the dogs were treated for 'minor dehydration,' per the release. "We're grateful for the quick thinking of the initial reporting party and the professional response of our firefighters," Chief Robitaille added in his statement. "This incident is a reminder of the importance of avoiding unsecured structures and calling for help immediately in emergencies." The fire department concluded its release by urging the public to report any potentially unsafe abandoned shafts to their offices. Read the original article on People
Globe and Mail
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Globe and Mail
Hockey Canada sex-assault trial won't consider 2022 statements told to investigator
On Oct. 1, 2022, Michael McLeod walked a Hockey Canada investigator through his version of what happened on the night that he and some of his teammates are alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman at a downtown hotel in London, Ont., four years earlier. The investigator, a Toronto lawyer named Danielle Robitaille, asked him questions about when he first met the complainant – a woman known only as E.M. because of a publication ban – at a bar called Jack's. In Mr. McLeod's telling, E.M. was one of a number of girls hanging around the players on the dance floor. He told Ms. Robitaille they hit it off. He bought her a drink. She bought him one. 'This kept happening,' he said. At one point, they walked over to a sidebar, where a representative from Nike was buying 'Jägerbomb' drinks – a mix of red bull and Jägermeister. Mr. McLeod told Ms. Robitaille he saw E.M. take three Jägerbombs. Shortly after, they decided to go to the bathroom, but E.M. slipped and fell, getting covered in beer before she got back up, Mr. McLeod said. He told Ms. Robitaille he thinks she slipped because the floor was wet, not because she was drunk. The fall was a brief moment in the narrative of the night, but one that has become a point of contention at the players' criminal trial and an example of inconsistencies that have emerged in the case. Mr. McLeod denied seeing the woman fall when he first talked to police in 2018, according to the Crown, and several of the players' defence lawyers pressed E.M. during cross-examination about whether Mr. McLeod witnessed the fall. Mr. McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote are each accused of sexually assaulting E.M. in the hotel room. Mr. McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to sexual assault. The men have all pleaded not guilty and the trial is expected to continue in London for several more weeks. But the judge hearing the case, Justice Maria Carroccia, won't be able to consider Mr. McLeod's statement to Ms. Robitaille, which was ruled inadmissible during pre-trial motions. Nor will she have access to what two of the other accused players – Mr. Formenton and Mr. Dubé – told Ms. Robitaille or be able to see what the Crown has identified as inconsistencies between those statements and what the players told police. A different judge hearing pre-trial motions ruled that the way Ms. Robitaille and Hockey Canada obtained the players' statements – by threatening them with a lifetime ban and publicity if they didn't co-operate – was coercive and that allowing them into evidence would violate the players' fair trial rights. The judge noted Hockey Canada had told police it would waive solicitor-client privilege, and once the organization received a request from police to hand over its investigative file, Ms. Robitaille cancelled interviews in 2022 with Mr. Hart and Mr. Foote. In the fall of 2022, when Ms. Robitaille interviewed Mr. McLeod, Mr. Formenton and Mr. Dubé, Hockey Canada was under intense public scrutiny. Six months earlier, in the spring of 2022, Hockey Canada had settled a lawsuit with the complainant without the players' knowledge. Ms. Robitaille later said in a pre-trial hearing that she used the woman's statement of claim to challenge some of the players' previous assertions. 'That's when I obtained, in my view, more truthful versions from the players,' Ms. Robitaille said. Last Friday's decision by Justice Carroccia to dismiss the jury and proceed with the case against the five accused players by judge alone, lifts the publication ban on a trove of documents, including Ms. Robitaille's interviews with three of the accused. The notes from those interviews, contained in a 214-page document, are in most cases handwritten summaries, none of which have been tested in court. Lawyers representing these players declined to comment on their contents. Other apparent inconsistencies revealed in the documents include that Mr. Dubé told Ms. Robitaille that he slapped E.M.'s buttocks, though he did not mention this to police, the Crown told a pre-trial hearing last year. The Crown also argued in pre-trial hearings that the transcripts include several discrepancies between what Mr. Formenton told the investigator and what he told police. They also show that he returned for a second interview with Ms. Robitaille to correct information he told her. None of that information can come into the trial. Crown prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham argued in a pre-trial hearing last fall that she should be able to use the Hockey Canada interviews to challenge what the players told police and what they could say at the trial if they choose to testify. 'This is really about whether the accused, if they choose to testify, should be able to say whatever they want on the stand with impunity, knowing they can't be confronted with what they said previously,' Ms. Cunningham said. 'The credibility and reliability of the accused, should they choose to testify, will be of central importance to this trial.' Ms. Cunningham seized on Mr. McLeod's varying accounts of the fall as an example of why the interview notes should be admitted. The handwritten notes from Mr. McLeod's interview with Ms. Robitaille show that Mr. McLeod acknowledged seeing E.M. stumble near the bar bathroom. The notes say he said that E.M. 'slipped, fell back' but that she only 'had three drinks, didn't seem drunk.' Ms. Cunningham asserted that Mr. McLeod left this out when police spoke to him years earlier. 'He denied seeing her fall,' said Ms. Cunningham. 'It was specifically put to him, and he said 'not that I saw.'' Earlier this month, E.M. testified at trial that she may have had 10 or more drinks that night. Mr. McLeod's lawyer, David Humphrey, was among several defence lawyers who questioned her about apparent inconsistencies between the various statements she had provided over the years about the fall. 'I'm going to suggest, Mikey was not there any time you fell,' Mr. Humphrey said. In the pre-trial hearing, Ms. Cunningham also argued that the trial should hear what she regarded as a key piece of evidence against Mr. Dubé. In Mr. Dubé's interview with Ms. Robitialle, he told Ms. Robitaille he 'slapped her (E.M.) on bum once or twice,' according to the interview notes. He also conceded that he 'maybe' touched E.M.'s bum with a golf club that he had been holding in the room that night. Ms. Cunningham told the court last fall: 'This is one of the acts that the Crown says would satisfy the elements of sexual assault.' E.M. has testified that she was scared when players began showing up at the hotel room and she felt she had no choice but to go along with what they were saying. She told the court that at one point, someone mused about putting golf balls and a golf club inside of her. Prosecutors also noted during pre-trial hearings that Mr. Formenton's interviews with Ms. Robitaille contained 'many material differences' in his accounts to authorities. For example Mr. Formenton appears to have given Hockey Canada two interviews four days apart where he gave different versions of the truth. Notes say that on Oct. 14, 2022, Ms. Robitaille asked him whether E.M. was slapped in the hotel room or hit with golf clubs. 'Didn't see anyone slap E.M.,' Mr. Formenton was noted as saying. No one was wielding golf clubs, he said. Mr. Formenton arranged to sit down again with Ms. Robitaille days later, saying that he wanted to correct the record. 'Dubé walked up and tapped her on the butt and walked away,' the notes say he told Ms. Robitaille this time. 'It was a tap but loud enough to hear.' Mr. Formenton said he saw Mr. Dubé hold a golf club and swing it toward E.M. when she was on all fours. 'I did not see contact with EM + club but saw Dubé held golf club in right hand and made putting practice motion and swing towards her butt.' The player said he had been overwhelmed and didn't want to throw Mr. Dubé under the bus, according to the interview notes. He acknowledged that Mr. Dubé had phoned him and asked him not to mention the golf club. When speaking to Ms. Robitaille the players each denied assaulting E.M. But the notes and transcripts from Ms. Robitaille's interviews also include other details not previously known about what the players have said happened that night. For example, Mr. Formenton said he noticed E.M. crying at the end of the night, but it was because she worried she wasn't pretty enough. Ms. Robitaille told Mr. McLeod, 'We're hearing that you were directing players to have sex with' E.M., which he denied. She asked Mr. Dubé whether Mr. McLeod had said 'you next.' Mr. Dubé's response is unclear from the notes. Court has also heard that a day after the alleged assault, Mr. McLeod found E.M. on Instagram, they exchanged numbers, and began texting. In those messages he pressured her to make the police investigation go away. 'You said you here having fun??' he wrote. 'I was ok with going home with you, it was everyone else afterwards that I wasn't expecting,' E.M. wrote back. 'I just felt like I was being made fun of and taken advantage of.' Ms. Robitaille asked Mr. McLeod about this exchange. She asked the player: if what you're saying is true – that E.M. is the one who asked him to invite his teammates to the room – why didn't he correct her in the text message? Why not say: 'it was your idea?' According to the note of the interview, Mr. McLeod told Ms. Robitaille that he was just trying to get it – the police investigation – to stop. He told the Hockey Canada investigator that E.M. hadn't been drunk and she was consenting.
Hamilton Spectator
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
‘I just didn't care': Why a Hockey Canada investigator's ‘unfair' probe led to the exclusion of a ‘virtual treasure trove' of evidence
It was the summer of 2022, and Hockey Canada was under immense public pressure to revisit claims of an alleged 2018 sexual assault of a young woman in a London, Ont., hotel room by members of the Canadian world junior hockey team. The organization started investigating the alleged incident in 2018, with no conclusion. But the woman had since filed a lawsuit and her story had become the focus of nationwide outrage. So Hockey Canada presented the players — some now playing in the NHL — with a stark choice: give an interview to a re-opened internal investigation, or be identified publicly and banned from Hockey Canada activities and programs for life. What the organization's independent investigator and prominent Toronto lawyer Danielle Robitaille didn't tell the players is that by August 2022, she was aware that London police planned to get a warrant to seize her investigative file as part of its own reopened investigation. And, on top of that, Hockey Canada had told police it wouldn't try to block them from taking the files by asserting solicitor-client privilege. The police plans for a warrant meant they now had a basis to believe that at least some of the players had committed a sexual assault. The men were declining to speak to police to maintain their right to silence. Court records show that London police were hopeful that Robitaille's own interviews — which she had said were confidential — may have uncovered new leads that could be useful in making the case for criminal charges. The jury has heard — in graphic detail — her allegations about what took place inside a London, Ont., hotel room in 2018. The jury has heard — in graphic detail — her allegations about what took place inside a London, Ont., hotel room in 2018. Robitaille pressed ahead with interviews into the fall, keeping Alex Formenton, Michael McLeod, and Dillon Dubé in the dark about police intentions as she grilled them about the events of June 18-19, 2018. Under penalty of a lifetime ban, they provided detailed accounts of what happened, maintaining that their sexual contact with the complainant was consensual and that the woman was insistent on having sex with players that night. Dubé also admitted to slapping the complainant and hearing McLeod telling someone 'You next' in the room, while both he and Formenton said they saw player Cal Foote do the splits over the complainant's body. McLeod said the complainant was 'asking for a lot of crazy things,' and said inviting other players back to his room was her idea. He said that he repeatedly checked in with her throughout the night to make sure she was OK with what was happening. Was Robitaille 'oblivious,' McLeod's lawyer David Humphrey asked her during pre-trial hearings last year, to how potentially valuable these statements could be in the hands of the police and the Crown, as they made their case for criminal charges? 'I just didn't care,' Robitaille testified. 'It was collateral to me.' Once the court order was served on Robitaille's firm in October 2022, the statements of the three men went straight to the London Police Service. Robitaille then cancelled her upcoming interviews with Foote and Carter Hart, the two other players who were subsequently charged and are now on trial. Superior Court Justice Bruce Thomas ruled last year that the statements had to be excluded from the case, and so they were never heard at the players' ongoing high-profile trial. Thomas found that the manner in which the statements were obtained was 'so unfair and prejudicial' that they could not be used by the Crown at trial. The decision Friday by the five accused men to re-elect to be tried by a judge instead of a jury means Thomas's ruling can now be made public, along with the players' statements themselves and the behind-the-scenes details of Hockey Canada's probe into the matter. Robitaille 'forged ahead knowing full well that the statements she compelled were going to end up in the hands of police,' Thomas wrote in his December ruling. London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to 'a resurgence in media attention' — with London police documents make clear the high-profile sex assault investigation was reopened in 2022 due to 'a resurgence in media attention' — with 'The statements of the three applicants must be excluded from evidence as the admission would offend their right to a fair trial,' Thomas said, agreeing with the defence lawyers' descriptions of the interviews as compelled, coerced, and involuntary. He added: 'I would suggest that the manner in which the applicants' statements were compelled by Hockey Canada would be seen as unfair by the public and would detrimentally affect the concept of a fair trial.' The Crown had wanted to use the statements to highlight potential inconsistencies between what the players told Robitaille and what they told a jury, should they choose to take the stand. The Crown argued there were 'significant areas of potential impeachment' if the players strayed in their testimony from what they told Robitaille. What's less clear is how big a role the statements played in London police's decision to lay criminal charges, as it was one of the few pieces of new evidence they didn't have when they first investigated in 2018 and interviewed most of the players now on trial. In an application for a warrant in 2022 to get Robitaille's file, London police officer David Younan said it would be reasonable to believe that Robitaille 'asked different questions of the players than our own investigators, and therefore, elicited different answers or new information about what occurred.' He said a court order was also necessary because he was 'concerned that the players who cooperated with the independent investigation may not understand that the interview could be shared with police.' Hundreds of pages filed in the court proceedings offer a behind-the-scenes look at Hockey Canada's investigation into the allegations that a 20-year-old woman was sexually assaulted by multiple players in 2018. They show the difficulties Robitaille had in getting the complainant to participate in her initial investigation in 2018 — causing it to be put on hold — and how the players' lawyers were vehemently against their clients participating in the re-opened 2022 probe; they believed Hockey Canada was already communicating to the public that their clients were guilty, in a bid for damage control in the face of a growing public scandal. Robitaille's firm, Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP, told the Star in a statement it was retained by Hockey Canada to complete 'a conduct investigation pursuant to the Hockey Canada code of conduct and to deliver a written report. 'We did just that both professionally and effectively. The criminal trial is ongoing and accordingly, we will not make any further comments at this time.' The entrance to room 209 at the Delta Armouries. Robitaille's involvement in the case began shortly after the alleged sexual assault. The partner of the complainant's mother called Hockey Canada on June 19, 2018, to report the alleged incident the previous night, but with very few details. He told Hockey Canada the complainant had gone back to the hotel room of a player named 'Mikey' (later identified as McLeod) and had sex, and that other players came in later and a sexual assault may have occurred. He said she was embarrassed and didn't want to report it. The organization reached out to Robitaille. A lawyer who is no stranger to high-profile cases, Robitaille represented disgraced ex-CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi at his 2016 sexual assault trial alongside law partner Marie Henein, where Ghomeshi was acquitted of all charges. Robitaille advised Hockey Canada to call the police, which they did. Soon after, she was asked by the organization to conduct an independent investigation into whether any members of the juniors team had breached their code of conduct. She interviewed multiple players, coaches and staff in parallel to a criminal investigation being conducted by London police. Of the five players now on trial, the only one she interviewed in 2018 was Cal Foote, who was treated as a witness to sexual activity in room 209 that night. He told Robitaille that the complainant seemed fine and had said, according to a transcript of Foote's interview: 'Can any of you guys f--- me? Am I not good enough? There's 10 of you in here.' (Two other players who witnessed events in the room told Robitaille the same thing.) Robitaille's investigation soon hit a major roadblock: the complainant didn't want to speak with her until the police had finished their probe. 'And so my investigation was stuck,' she testified last November at pre-trial hearings on the defence motion to have the players' 2022 statements excluded. The players she was most interested in speaking to — those whom she believed may have played the biggest role in the events of that night at the Delta Armouries hotel — were also asking to defer sitting down for an interview until the police investigation was over. Given that the complainant wasn't participating either, Robitaille agreed. She ultimately paused her probe on July 24, 2018. Once London police closed their own investigation in February 2019 without laying charges , Robitaille reached back out to the complainant, hoping to reopen her internal probe. But to no avail. 'There was a period of 18 months following the conclusion of the criminal investigation where my office sent emails, letters, phone calls — a bit persistent — to (the complainant's) counsel, to get her version of events,' Robitaille testified. 'I sent an email to (the complainant) saying something like, 'We're closing your case.' I had some experience that sometimes when you send that sort of email, that does cause people to re-engage, which I thought was a possibility here.' But the complainant did not re-engage. And Robitaille shut down her investigation in September 2020. Two years later, when the scandal erupted, the players' lawyers would argue in correspondence with Hockey Canada that the organization had publicly suggested that some of the players didn't cooperate with Robitaille's probe when, in fact, they had just asked to defer their interview until the end of the police investigation. But once that was over, Robitaille never reached back out to schedule interviews. She maintained that she couldn't without the complainant's version of events. 'I had a double hearsay, bare allegation,' she testified, referring to how the few details that had been reported to Hockey Canada came from the complainant's mom's partner. 'It just wasn't fair for me to proceed with player interviews without detailed allegations.' Everything changed in May 2022 when TSN reported that Hockey Canada had settled, for an undisclosed sum, a $3.5-million lawsuit filed by the complainant the previous month against the organization, the Canadian Hockey League and eight unnamed John Does, alleging sexual abuse by the players. She also alleged that Hockey Canada 'failed to take steps to investigate the activities of the John Doe defendants once it was fully aware of their actions,' but didn't mention Robitaille's 2018 probe nor her refusal to participate. Correspondence from the players' lawyers shows they hadn't been told of Hockey Canada's intention to settle, or even that a claim had been filed. Meanwhile, news of the settlement led to backlash against Hockey Canada, as sponsors began to pull out and executives were called to testify before the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian heritage. The case soon sparked larger questions about sexual misconduct in professional sports, and what was being done to investigate and prevent it, and led to the revelation that Hockey Canada had been using a fund partly made up of players' registration fees to pay millions of dollars to respond to sexual assault allegations . The public outcry caused both London police and Hockey Canada to reopen their respective investigations — once again in parallel, but this time things would be different. In a widely published ' Open Letter to Canadians ' in July 2022, Hockey Canada said that players who didn't participate in their probe would be 'be banned from all Hockey Canada activities and programs effective immediately.' 'We know we have not done enough to address the actions of some members of the 2018 National Junior Team,' read the Hockey Canada open letter. 'What happened in London, Ontario in 2018 was completely unacceptable and we once again apologize to Canadians, the young woman, and all those who have been impacted.' In his December ruling, Thomas wrote that such a ban would prohibit the players from participating in the world championships or the Olympics, as well as coaching any teams affiliated with Hockey Canada — even their own children's team. In her testimony last year, Robitaille also agreed with the defence that 'naming and shaming' players who didn't participate in her probe would publicly link them to allegations of 'gang rape' and destroy their careers. Something else that was different in 2022 was that Robitaille now had a statement from the complainant, sent by her lawyer, outlining her allegations. (At trial, the complainant admitted that the statement contains multiple errors and was actually written by her civil lawyers.) Robitaille later interviewed the woman as well. In the statement, she alleged she was too intoxicated to consent and that McLeod and the other men should have known this. While she said she wasn't physically prevented from leaving the room, she also said she didn't feel like she could, given the number of 'large' men in the room. She felt she had to stay and go along with everything . 'I was stuck in that room and I didn't really have a clear exit even if I wanted to leave,' she said. 'I felt like I was just there for their entertainment.' Behind the scenes, the players' lawyers were expressing concern to Robitaille that Hockey Canada's choice of language showed it had already decided they were guilty; the open letter coupled with comments made by executives before the House committee made it sound like Hockey Canada believed the sexual assault really did happen, even though its re-opened investigation had barely begun. Their clients were being compelled to give interviews to a probe they didn't believe could be independent or impartial, the lawyers said. But Robitaille maintained that her investigation would keep an open mind and remain confidential. 'We can unequivocally advise you that we have formed no views whatsoever in relation to the allegations that prompted this investigation,' Robitaille wrote to the players' lawyers in a pair of letters in July 2022. 'Our investigation is confidential and we will take any and all reasonable steps to protect the anonymity of the participants, including the complainant and the players.' The landscape around the players' legal jeopardy had also dramatically shifted. When some of the players agreed to speak to police in 2018, they were told upfront that police had no grounds to believe a sexual assault had occurred. In 2022, there was immense public pressure on Hockey Canada and the police to do something and, as a result, the players were declining to speak with police. But they were being forced to speak to Robitaille, and were worried that their statements could end up in the hands of the police anyway. In their 2022 interviews with Robitaille — of which only handwritten notes exist — McLeod, Dubé and Formenton echoed Foote's 2018 interview, saying the complainant told the room she wanted to have sex with players. After McLeod and the complainant returned to his room and had consensual sex, he had sent a text to other players about a 'three-way,' and Hart replied 'I'm in.' McLeod told Robitaille his text to the group was prompted by the complainant: She said 'tell teammates to come, I want to do stuff with them too, fantasy of mine,' according to the notes. A group chat including a text from Michael McLeod inviting his teammates to his hotel room. McLeod had intercourse and oral sex once more with the complainant that night. Dubé, the team captain, said she briefly licked his testicles, and recalled hearing McLeod telling someone in the room: 'You next.' He also admitted to slapping the complainant on the buttocks once or twice — something not mentioned in the 2018 police report summarizing his interview at the time. Stating he was very drunk in the room, Dubé told Robitaille he had been holding a golf club in his hand (the players were in London for a charity golf tournament) and the complainant said to him: 'Are you going to f--- me or play golf?' 'I was offput, didn't want to have sex with her in front of people,' Dubé said, according to the notes. 'Slapped her on bum once or twice when she said that.' Formenton, who was McLeod's roommate that night, told Robitaille he had sex with the complainant after she made eye contact with him and walked into the bathroom. He also recalled her crying at the end of the night to McLeod, saying he overheard her say, 'Was I not hot enough?' as McLeod reassured her that many of the players' decision not to have sex with her was because they had girlfriends. Formenton did two interviews with Robitaille in 2022; in the first one, he said he didn't see anyone slap the complainant nor see Dubé touch her with a golf club. He returned for a second interview to tell Robitaille that he did in fact see Dubé swing a golf club toward the complainant's buttocks, but not make contact, and that he saw Dubé 'tap' her on the buttocks — loud enough to hear — while she was performing oral sex on McLeod. He admitted that Dubé had asked him not to mention the golf club ahead of his first interview, telling Robitaille in his second interview that he had been 'nervous, overwhelmed, didn't want to throw Dubé 'under the bus,' but now wanted to correct the record.' McLeod told Robitaille he checked in with the complainant throughout the night to make sure she was fine with what has happening. 'Asked her five times if she was having fun,' according to the notes. 'Always said she was fine and having fun.' He said he told her if she ever didn't feel comfortable, 'let me know and I will ask them to leave.' McLeod said the woman was 'asking for a lot of crazy things. If up to her, would have had sex with whole team ... Wouldn't be surprised if asked guys to slap her ass but didn't hear that.' Had Robitaille pushed ahead with her interviews of Foote and Hart, court filings show that she would have put an allegation to Hart that he received oral sex from the complainant, and that Foote had been more of an active participant than he let on in 2018. Robitaille now alleged that he 'teabagged' the complainant — straddled her and placed his testicles in her face — without her consent, another piece of information not mentioned in the original 2018 police report. Both Dubé and Formenton told Robitaille they had witnessed Foote doing the splits over the complainant's face. 'A guy says Foote can do the splits; she says OK,' Formenton recalled. 'So she's laying on the ground parallel between the beds. I remember he takes pants off, top clothes still on, does splits over her upper body.' In his questioning of Robitaille last year during pre-trial hearings, Humphrey, McLeod's lawyer, suggested that she had signaled to the police that it would be a good idea to get her investigative file. He drew her attention to a July 2022 email she sent to Crown attorney Julia Forward, who was advising London police on its investigation. Forward knew Robitaille was about to testify before the House committee and wanted to see if she knew the complainant's name. Robitaille said she did, as well as the names of all of the John Does in the lawsuit. Michael McLeod is seen outside the London Courthouse in London, Ont., Tuesday, April 22, 2025 with his lawyers David Humphrey, left, and Anna Zhang, right. Robitaille went on to write: 'In terms of my state of knowledge, am aware of names, detailed allegations, corroborative and contradictory evidence, etc. I am essentially in the same position as any officer would be, having completed the majority of the investigation in a multi-accused prosecution.' After reading that aloud, Humphrey said to Robitaille: 'As an experienced criminal lawyer, you'd agree that's a pretty appetizing thing for you to say to a Crown attorney who's advising the police on how to conduct their investigation?' Robitaille said she wrote that hoping Forward and/or the police could help get her out of having to testify before the House committee, due to the ongoing parallel investigations. But the effect of her response to Forward remains the same, Humphrey countered: 'To a prosecutor, this would communicate to them that your investigative file is a virtual treasure trove of evidence that the police should want to have.' By early August 2022, Robitaille was made aware that the police were planning to apply to the court for a production order to get her file. That position was made clear to her in emails from Det. Lyndsey Ryan, who was handling London police's reopened criminal probe. Ryan had also allowed Robitaille to view hotel lobby surveillance footage of the complainant and the players, as long as she agreed not to tell anyone. The defence argued this was a 'shocking' agreement that allowed Robitaille to tailor her questions in line with the video evidence, eliciting answers the police planned to then obtain with their warrant, and ultimately influencing the prosecution. While finding it 'odd' that Ryan would let Robitaille view the surveillance footage, Thomas disagreed that this was done to make her file more worthwhile to the police. Rather, 'the demands for the applicants' interviews and the timing of that coercion was done for Ms. Robitaille's own purposes, and not to assist or influence the criminal investigation.' Robitaille testified last year that she wasn't told that she had to keep the police's plans for a warrant confidential. So why not tell the players, Humphrey asked her. She responded that she saw it as a police matter; the players' lawyers always assumed that the police might try to get a production order, and if they wanted clarity on that, they should have asked the police, Robitaille said. 'Ultimately, I concluded that it didn't fall into the category of evidence that I needed to provide notice of to the participants in my investigation,' she said. Her focus, she said, was on interviewing the players about the allegations against them and finishing her report. Only when the production order was formally served on her firm on Oct. 25, 2022, did she cancel her upcoming interviews with Hart and Foote, saying she was now worried about the loss of her probe's confidentiality. Robitaille was 'unable to adequately explain to this court the difference she saw in knowing the production order was arriving imminently and having actually received it,' Thomas wrote in his decision. Ultimately, the reason Robitaille pushed forward with the interviews in the first place wasn't to help the police do their jobs, Thomas wrote. She just wanted to get the whole thing over with. He noted that as far back as 2018, Robitaille had been concerned the players were ignoring her probe in favour of the police investigation and complying with a separate NHL investigation. 'She was upset that her investigation was treated as third in line,' Thomas wrote. 'In addition, it was Ms. Robitaille's view that this had taken 'long enough.' She needed to obtain the interviews and write up her report. She had her own taxing trial matters approaching and these efforts for Hockey Canada had consumed an inordinate amount of resources from the boutique firm where she worked. 'She needed to get this done.'
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
The Kings aren't starting over under GM Ken Holland, but he has quick decisions to make
The Los Angeles Kings have their new general manager, and Ken Holland is the opposite of a new face. The Hockey Hall of Famer, who has worked in the NHL across four decades, now joins his third team as the Kings' vice president and GM. So, what is he getting himself into? Holland, who will be introduced at a news conference on Thursday, likely will have a clear mission. He'll be tasked with seeing what can be done to augment a solid, hard-working team that hasn't been able to take the next step toward being an elite group — or simply can't, with its current roster. Getting past the Edmonton Oilers isn't the sole goal for Kings president Luc Robitaille — though it's interesting to note that Holland was the Oilers' GM from 2019-24. Advertisement In Robitaille's mind, the next level for the Kings is winning the Stanley Cup. 'I've always said that on July 1, if you look at your team and say, 'What can we add that can help us win the Stanley Cup?' you're there,' Robitaille said last week as he announced Rob Blake's departure and outlined his GM search. 'And we've been thinking that way for the last couple of years. We haven't won the Cup. It's not about beating one team or winning one round. This is about winning a Stanley Cup. … 'Rob made tremendous moves (last) summer but it's not good enough. We've got to get better.' Robitaille is correct that the Kings must get better, at least to clear the Edmonton roadblock that's preventing them from getting out of the first round. While some skepticism has followed Holland's hiring — Detroit Red Wings fans quickly bring up him putting off a rebuild as he continued to chase a playoff streak that stretched 25 years — what often gets ignored is the Oilers being a bit of a mess, even with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl taking over the NHL. Holland got results in his five seasons in Edmonton, which isn't surprising with two of the top three players in the league. (Nathan MacKinnon has a spot.) The Oilers had five playoff appearances, won six rounds and were one win away from a storybook Stanley Cup Final comeback and championship last year. Meanwhile, the Kings haven't won a series since they lifted the Cup in 2014. They're not rebuilding, and Holland wasn't brought in for a start-it-over job. The Kings, with Anže Kopitar and Drew Doughty as their leaders, are pointed in a win-now direction and that's not going to change. So, let's see what Holland faces in the short term, with the salary-cap situation and upcoming decisions. The first item on Holland's to-do list doesn't pertain to the roster. He has inherited coach Jim Hiller, who acknowledged last week that a GM change often is followed by a coaching change. Before hiring Holland, Robitaille said he would leave the decision about Hiller's future to his next GM but added that he felt it would be hard to fire Hiller after a regular season with 48 wins and 105 points — even with the disastrous series against Edmonton. Advertisement Hiller has two more years on his contract, and paying two head coaches may not be particularly appetizing for Kings ownership. But if a change is being considered by Holland, the pool of potential replacements is shrinking. Mike Sullivan was quickly snapped up. Rick Tocchet is off the market. David Carle decided to stay at the University of Denver. Joel Quenneville is now down the road in Anaheim. Jay Woodcroft, Gerard Gallant and Peter Laviolette are available. Holland could give Jeff Blashill, now an assistant to Tampa Bay's highly successful Jon Cooper, another shot after hiring him to succeed Mike Babcock in Detroit. But the play could be to run it back with Hiller, with whom he's familiar because of Hiller's one-year stint as a Red Wings assistant under Babcock before both left for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Kings, like every team, will gain cap flexibility this summer, with the ceiling rising another $7.5 million to $95.5 million. It is set to rise further in subsequent seasons. But that cap surge will be a blessing for a franchise that often was constricted in Blake's final years by some ill-advised contracts, which necessitated some roster gymnastics to stay cap-compliant — and limited the Kings' ability to make larger moves at the trade deadline. CapWages estimates that the Kings will have almost $23.5 million to spend for 2025-26. Ivan Provorov's $2 million salary retention – part of the cost to rid themselves of Cal Petersen's contract – will come off the books. But there are a few things that might eat into that cap space. A front-burner issue is defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. The 29-year-old's price has only gone up after the best all-around season of his career. He's finishing up a two-year, bet-on-himself extension ($5.875 million AAV) that he signed under Blake. What might help keep his price down is the fact that Carolina's Jaccob Slavin, generally considered the best defensive-minded defenseman in the NHL, signed an eight-year extension last July that has a $6.46 AAV. But that contract was also signed during the last year of the flat-cap era. Advertisement In March, Blake expressed confidence in getting Gavrikov re-signed. But there has been no extension, and the dynamic could change under Holland. Gavrikov was the Kings' best defenseman this season. He also can be the defensive complement on a team's top pair, with the ability to play equally well on the left or right side. His lack of offense could help keep his number down, but it's safe to say that Los Angeles won't get the kind of discount Florida got with Gustav Forsling ($5.75 million AAV). At the Kings' locker clean-out day, Gavrikov said he wasn't in a rush to sign a new deal. He could be weighing the comforts of a terrific fit in L.A. against the possibility of resetting the market for shutdown blueliners. There are other potential unrestricted free agents. Tanner Jeannot provided a physical presence that was missed on the fourth line when Hiller barely played that unit against the Oilers. Andrei Kuzmenko helped juice up an ailing power play and added a dimension to the offense that the Kings didn't have, but his effectiveness and ice time waned sharply as the series went on. David Rittich and Pheonix Copley are UFA goalies behind Darcy Kuemper. Trevor Lewis, 38, said he isn't ready to retire. Moving on from Jeannot, Kuzmenko, Rittich, Copley and Lewis would free up $7.6 million for Holland from this season's cap total. (Philadelphia retained $2.75 million of Kuzmenko's cap hit after the trade.) But keeping Gavrikov would take a big chunk out of that cap space. And while the Kings could further expand Alex Turcotte's role next season, they don't appear to have a high-ceiling winger prospect in the system outside of Liam Greentree, their 2024 first-round pick, who turns 20 on Jan. 1. They'll need a backup goalie as well, though they could stay in-house if they feel Erik Portillo is ready as Carter George and Hampton Slukynsky continue to gain experience as potential replacements for Kuemper down the line. But while Holland will have more money available, it doesn't mean the Kings are set to dive into the Mitch Marner sweepstakes if he opts for free agency. The other question with Holland is whether he will conclude that a trade is necessary to shake up the Kings and propel them forward. Adrian Kempe, the Kings' leading scorer and best player, is heading into his walk year and will be in line for a huge contract after delivering big on a four-year contract that has been a bargain. Kevin Fiala has a full no-move clause until it switches to a modified NTC in 2026. Phillip Danault has a 10-team NTC. Trevor Moore doesn't have trade protection. Might Holland consider trading Doughty? The best defenseman in franchise history has a clause in which he annually submits seven teams he'd accept a trade to. He's still under contract for two more seasons at an $11 million cap hit. And while young forward Alex Laferriere has proven to be a keeper, the 23-year-old is up for his second contract and is arbitration-eligible after two productive seasons. One thing is for sure as Holland takes over. The 69-year-old will have to hit the ground running. (Photo of Adrian Kempe and Drew Doughty: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Ken Holland to be announced as L.A. Kings' general manager
The Los Angeles Kings are set to announce the hiring of Ken Holland, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, as their general manager on Wednesday, league sources said. Holland, 69, the former GM of the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers, succeeds Rob Blake, who mutually separated from the Kings last week following eight seasons — including four consecutive first-round playoff losses to Edmonton. At a media availability last week, team president Luc Robitaille hinted at going outside the organization for a successor. Advertisement 'We're just going to do the best search we can and find the best candidate to help this franchise to the next level,' Robitaille said. 'Doesn't matter how old the person is. Where they're from internally, externally. We just got to find the right person.' While special advisor Marc Bergevin — who worked closely with Robitaille and Blake for the last four years — immediately emerged as a possible candidate, The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun reported last week that Robitaille brought Holland to Southern California for an interview on Thursday. Holland is best known for his 34 years in the Detroit Red Wings' front office, starting as an amateur scout and then running that department before serving as an assistant GM to Jim Devellano and then taking over in 1997. He served as the Red Wings' GM for 22 years, during which they won the Stanley Cup in 1998, 2002 and 2008. Robitaille played two seasons for the Red Wings (2001-03) when Holland was their GM. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2020, Holland moved into a role as senior vice president in Detroit in 2019 — to make room for Steve Yzerman in the front office — but then, less than a month later, Holland moved to the Edmonton Oilers to become their GM and president of hockey operations. Holland spent five seasons with the Oilers, and last year they reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final before losing. But his role had been reduced after Jeff Jackson was hired as CEO of hockey operations, and Holland and the Oilers agreed to part ways after last season. While in Edmonton, Holland was criticized for signing goalie Jack Campbell and defenseman Darnell Nurse to outsized contracts, but he did well in landing Zach Hyman as a free agent and trading for Mattias Ekholm. Hyman has scored 144 goals over the last four seasons, including a career-best 54 in 2023-24, and Ekholm has been a great defensive partner for Bouchard, which also put Nurse in a better-suited second-pairing role. Advertisement One of Holland's first decisions figures to be whether to retain Jim Hiller as Kings coach. After taking over in an interim role midway through the 2023-24 season, Hiller led the Kings to a 48-25-9 record and 105 points in 2024-25 — both tying franchise records. After Hiller's decision-making came under fire during the Kings' six-game loss to Edmonton, Robitaille said he believed Hiller would return as coach. But he also alluded to his new GM having the autonomy to make that call. Hiller signed a three-year contract last year when he got the full-time job. 'You want to give him the freedom,' Robitaille said. 'You don't want to lock up a new person that's coming in. But the record of what Jimmy has done this year is really, really good. That'd be really hard for any GM to say, 'Well, this guy shouldn't come back.' He's been really good. 'I think Jimmy's a great coach. I fully think that this guy is coming back for sure.' In Edmonton, Holland hired Jay Woodcroft as coach in February 2022 – but also fired him 13 games into the 2023-24 season after a 3-9-1 start. Woodcroft coached the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl-led Oilers to the Western Conference final in 2022 and to the second round in 2023. He has interviewed for openings in New Jersey, Columbus and Anaheim in the last two offseasons. Woodcroft and Holland have a lengthy history, going back to Detroit, where Woodcroft served as the Red Wings' video coach for three years before leaving to spend seven seasons on Todd McLellan's staff in San Jose. Hiller was an assistant coach in Detroit to Mike Babcock in 2014-15 while Holland was there before he and Babcock left for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Whatever he decides, Holland is back in a position of power after working for the NHL in hockey operations last year. Robitaille believes Blake left the Kings' roster in good shape. While Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty continue to be the franchise bookends, the Kings have other high-performing veterans, such as Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala and Mikey Anderson, and younger players such as Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere are increasing in prominence. Holland now must decide about re-signing Vladislav Gavrikov and must work on an extension for Adrian Kempe, the Kings' top scorer and best player. Advertisement 'A new GM will come in, but we're in good shape,' Robitaille said last week. 'I really mean it. I think the moves that Rob did and the group did last summer really changed our team. Got more of an edge and so forth. But that being said, it's not enough. We're going to have to figure out exactly what needs to be tweaked to get this team to the next level.'
