Defense attorney challenges E.M. in Hockey Canada trial: ‘You weren’t scared’

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LONDON, Ont. – The complainant in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial was grilled about whether she was actually scared in the early-morning hours of June 19, 2018, during the second day of cross-examination.

David Humphrey, a defense attorney for Michael McLeod, also pressed E.M. on whether she encouraged any of the alleged sexual acts that are covered in her allegations.

She was also repeatedly asked about her feelings toward McLeod after the alleged acts took place, with the defense asserting that she was upset that he rushed her out the door at the end of the night.

McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote are all facing sexual assault charges stemming from the alleged incident while players were in town for a Hockey Canada event celebrating their 2018 World Juniors championship. All five players pleaded not guilty to charges when arraigned in Ontario Superior Court.

Humphrey pressed E.M. on what he identified as a “central issue” in the case, questioning her testimony that she experienced fear during the alleged events in which she said she was sexually assaulted over a span of hours in a London, Ont., hotel room.

Humphrey asked E.M. on multiple occasions why she did not expressly communicate that she was fearful during the alleged incident in her original statement to police. E.M. said that she spoke with police just days after the alleged incident and was uncomfortable talking about it with a male detective whom she had never met previously.

She said that, at the time, she was still trying to “bottle up” what had happened and didn’t want to admit it was as “horrible” as it was. But Humphrey didn’t accept that response, taking issue with why she didn’t just choose to leave the room on the multiple occasions she went to the bathroom to retrieve her clothes and get dressed. She said that each time she tried to leave she was approached and guided back to the bedsheet. She said she didn’t feel like she had a choice to say no.

“Well, I’ll tell you why: Because you weren’t scared,” Humphrey said.

E.M. who remained even-keeled in her responses throughout the day, taking only brief breaks for sips of water, pushed back:

“I think it was the fear that was making it hard to think straight to figure out what I could do or couldn’t do,” she said  “I stayed put. I wish I didn’t.”

Humphrey asked when she realized she was fearful. After she told him she wasn’t sure, he responded:

“Maybe it came to you when you were deciding to file your civil suit,” a reference to the lawsuit she filed against Hockey Canada and eight unidentified John Doe defendants, which was later settled out of court in 2022.

Humphrey suggested that the comments she previously provided testimony about regarding players asking her to insert golf clubs and golf balls into her vagina were jokes and lighthearted in nature, prompting her to respond in kind.

In the hotel room that night, Humphries suggested that E.M. was flirting with the men, looking for a “wild night” and invited them to have sex with her, calling them “pussies” when they hesitated.

“Maybe I was saying things like that, but I have no memory of that,” E.M. said. “And I just know that’s not how I would usually be acting. And If they could see that I was that out of my mind and acting that crazy, I feel like they just should have known better.”

At one point, Humphrey said, one of the men said: “This girl is f—ing crazy.”

E.M. said she remembers that phrase being shouted. She said she didn’t believe she spoke to anyone but described herself as going on “autopilot.” She argued that any sexual comments she might have made spoke to her level of intoxication.

“They knew that. They could see that,” she said. “And still they did what they did.”

Humphrey spent significant time questioning E.M. about her sexual encounter with McLeod that preceded the alleged events of the night in question (she has never contended that the initial encounter was not consensual) and her initial meeting with McLeod at the bar.

“I’m going to suggest that part of what made Mr. McLeod attractive to you is that he was an elite hockey player and that he was loaded,” Humphrey said. (McLeod signed a three-year entry-level contract in October 2016; at the time of the alleged incident he had not played a single NHL game.)

E.M. said that wasn’t a factor she considered and that it didn’t impact her decision to go to the hotel with him.

Humphrey pointed out inconsistencies in E.M.’s past accounts about when exactly she knew they were hockey players, and the order of events leading up to her leaving the bar with McLeod. He repeatedly pressed her on when she fell down at the bar, pointing out that she had the chronology of the fall out of order. She conceded that her 2022 statement did have the fall out of sequence with the timeline, explaining that she did not fully prepare the statement and did not catch the error while reviewing the statement. She added that she also didn’t have her previous statement to police available to refresh her memory.

Later, Humphrey showed a video of E.M. dancing between McLeod and Brett Howden, in which she appears to touch McLeod’s crotch. E.M. has testified that through the night at Jack’s,  McLeod and others grabbed her hand and made her touch their crotches. Humphrey said the only video evidence of that happening was her doing it on her own. E.M. said it happened several other times earlier in the evening, at times not captured on surveillance video.

Humphrey ended Tuesday’s proceedings questioning E.M.’s feelings toward McLeod at the end of the night and how those factored into her emotions leaving the hotel. He asked her about having sex with McLeod in the shower after the group of men left the room and focused on what happened afterward. He said McLeod got in the bed and asked E.M. whether she’d be leaving soon, suggesting that he rushed her out the door because she was lingering in the hotel room afterward:

“Mr. McLeod is trying to go to bed. It’s the end of a very long night and he’s getting up early for golf. And you’re just hanging around. Isn’t that what was happening?” Humphrey said, laughing in exasperation.

E.M. agreed that she found his behavior “rude” and “disrespectful” but refuted that she was lingering. She said he indicated she should leave shortly after the final sexual encounter in the shower. She said she was on auto-pilot from the night’s events and felt it was “one last thing” she needed to do before leaving.

“I think the whole thing wasn’t respectful, but at the end he was being rude,” E.M. said.

She said she called him out on his behavior, explaining that she was still processing what happened that night but landed on that last interaction to rebuke: “I was just in a bit of disbelief as to what had just happened and his attitude about it, too. I couldn’t really understand it.”

She went back briefly to search for a ring she left behind, but said neither McLeod nor his roommate (Formenton) would turn on the light to help her look for it, making her feel “silly.”

Humphrey asked why she would go back for the ring, especially if it wasn’t valuable or sentimental. She said she didn’t like the idea of leaving her belongings behind.

“I really didn’t like the idea that they would still have a part of me in there.”

(Courtroom sketch of Michael McLeod’s lawyer David Humphrey from earlier in the trial by Alexandra Newbould / The Canadian Press via AP)

This news was originally published on this post .

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