Crown will not appeal decision to acquit players in Hockey Canada sexual assault trial: Source

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The Crown will not appeal Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia’s decision to acquit the five players involved in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case, according to a source with knowledge of the decision.

Last month, Carroccia found all five players — Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote — not guilty of sexual assault charges stemming from a 2018 incident in which a woman said she was assaulted in a London, Ont., hotel room while the players were in town for a gala celebrating their World Junior Championship.

In the judge’s ruling, which she detailed and read aloud over the span of several hours on July 24, Carroccia said she did not find the complainant — known as E.M. to protect her identity — in the case to be “credible or reliable.”

The decision came following a trial that garnered widespread attention, spanned two months and featured a number of bizarre twists, including the discharge of two juries.

The Crown had 30 days to appeal the decision but decided against proceeding with a challenge in the Ontario Court of Appeal. TSN was first to report the news.

The case focused on what happened in the early hours of June 19, 2018, at the Delta Armouries hotel. After a night of drinking and dancing at Jack’s, a popular bar in London, E.M. and McLeod had consensual sex in his hotel room. Later, E.M. said McLeod invited his teammates to the room to engage in sexual activity, without her knowledge or consent.

Defense attorneys for the five accused players argued that E.M. was the instigator and aggressor in the sexual activity that occurred in the hotel room.

The Crown argued that E.M. was put in a “highly stressful” and “unpredictable” situation and that she did not voluntarily consent to any of the specific acts that occurred. In her testimony, E.M. described disassociating at one point in the hotel room, which the Crown later explained as a response to fear.

Carroccia rejected that theory, saying in her decision that she found “actual consent not vitiated by fear.”

Megan Savard, Hart’s attorney, criticized the Crown for pursuing the case, describing the initial outcome as “not just predictable — it was predicted.”

“The Crown attorney did not have to take this case to trial,” Savard said in July.

Immediately following Carroccia’s decision last month, Karen Bellehumeur, who represents E.M., expressed her disappointment and stressed the need for institutional reform in how the justice system deals with sexual assault cases.

“The justice system continues to fall short on identifying and eradicating stereotypes,” Bellehumeur said. “It struggles to understand complicated social interactions, such as victim responses to unpredictable, threatening situations such as that described by E.M.”

Carroccia’s decision came nearly a month and a half after the highly publicized trial concluded and seven years after the alleged assault was first reported to London police.

Players gathered with their families and expressed relief that the yearslong saga had seemingly come to an end. Almost immediately, speculation began about what the acquittal meant for the players’ potential hockey careers, though the National Hockey League issued a strong response about their eligibility via a written statement:

“The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behavior at issue was unacceptable,” the NHL said. “We will be reviewing and considering the judge’s findings. While we conduct that analysis and determine next steps, the players charged in this case are ineligible to play in the League.”

The NHL Players’ Association pushed back on that, saying the league’s stance was not consistent with the collective bargaining agreement.

“Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, and Michael McLeod were acquitted of all charges by Justice Carroccia of the Ontario Superior Court,” the NHLPA’s statement read. “After missing more than a full season of their respective NHL careers, they should now have the opportunity to return to work. The NHL’s declaration that the Players are ‘ineligible’ to play pending its further analysis of the Court’s findings is inconsistent with the discipline procedures set forth in the CBA.”

The Players’ Association said in its statement that it was “addressing this dispute with the League.”

(Photo: Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press via Associated Press)

This news was originally published on this post .