{"id":15126,"date":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/06\/canadian-police-apologize-to-woman-for-taking-6-years-to-bring-charges-in-sexual-assault-investigation-involving-hockey-stars\/"},"modified":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T00:46:11","slug":"canadian-police-apologize-to-woman-for-taking-6-years-to-bring-charges-in-sexual-assault-investigation-involving-hockey-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/06\/canadian-police-apologize-to-woman-for-taking-6-years-to-bring-charges-in-sexual-assault-investigation-involving-hockey-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian police apologize to woman for taking 6 years to bring charges in sexual assault investigation involving hockey stars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New information uncovered during a reopened investigation led to sexual assault charges being brought last week against five professional hockey players, four of whom are playing in the NHL, Canadian police said Monday, six years after the offense was allegedly committed. <\/p>\n

The case against the players, who were members of the Canada world junior hockey team at the time of the alleged incident, was closed in early 2019 and reopened in July 2022 after an outcry from the Canadian public. <\/p>\n

The charges relate to an unnamed woman\u2019s accusation that multiple members of Canada\u2019s world junior hockey team sexually assaulted her in London, Ontario, in 2018. The five men facing charges were members of that team. <\/p>\n

The players, New Jersey Devils center\u00a0Mike McLeod; Devils defenseman Cal Foote; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart; Calgary Flames center\u00a0Dillon Dube; and former Ottawa Senator forward Alex Formenton are each charged with one count of sexual assault, according to an official police charge sheet released by Hockey Canada. <\/p>\n

McLeod is charged with an additional count of sexual assault for \u201cbeing a party to the offence,\u201d which relates to \u201caiding the behaviour of someone else,\u201d Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann said during a news conference in London on Monday.\u00a0The players have all been released with undertakings, which are used when police feel confident the conditions placed on the accused will sufficiently protect the safety of the victim and witnesses, according to Dann. <\/p>\n

London Police Chief Thai Truong apologized to the victim for the length of time it has taken to file charges.\u00a0\u201cI want to extend on behalf of the London Police Service to the victim and her family for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point,\u201d he told reporters. <\/p>\n

In previous statements by their lawyers, the players have all denied any wrongdoing and said they plan to defend their innocence in court. <\/p>\n

CTV News reported the prosecution presented its case and said a \u201csignificant\u201d amount of \u201cdisclosure,\u201d which refers to forms of evidence, would be sent to defense attorneys in the coming days.\u00a0The next court date is set for April 30, CTV reported. <\/p>\n

The current NHL players have been told to surrender to authorities, London police have said. <\/p>\n

How the case came to light<\/h2>\n

The case garnered widespread attention in May 2022 when Canadian broadcaster TSN reported the woman had settled a lawsuit she\u2019d filed against Hockey Canada \u2013 the nation\u2019s governing body for the sport \u2013 and members of the junior team over the assault allegations. <\/p>\n

A cascade of developments followed, including parliamentary hearings in June 2022 over Hockey Canada\u2019s handling of the case and announcements in July 2022 that London police and\u00a0Hockey Canada\u00a0would reopen their investigations. <\/p>\n

Formenton, who was playing professionally in Switzerland, \u201cwill vigorously defend his innocence and asks that people not rush to judgment without hearing all of the evidence,\u201d his attorneys Daniel Brown and Lindsay Board said in a statement. Formenton, who played for the Senators in 2017, has taken an indefinite leave of absence from Swiss hockey club Ambri-Piotta. <\/p>\n

McLeod \u201cdenies any criminal wrongdoing,\u201d his attorneys David Humphrey and Seth Weinstein said in a statement. \u201cHe will be pleading not guilty and will vigorously defend the case.\u201d <\/p>\n

Foote \u201cis innocent of the charge and will defend himself against this allegation to clear his name,\u201d his attorney said. \u201cWhat is most critical at this time is the presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial that everyone in Canada is entitled to.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hart \u201cis innocent and will provide a full response to this false allegation in the proper forum, a court of law,\u201d his attorneys Riaz Sayani and Megan Savard said in a joint release. <\/p>\n

Dube \u201cwill plead not guilty and maintains his innocence,\u201d and \u201cwill defend the allegations in court,\u201d his attorneys Louis P. Strezos and Kaleigh Davidson said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The Flames are \u201caware of the charge of sexual assault that has been laid against Dillon Dube,\u201d the club\u00a0said. \u201cWe take this matter very seriously. Because the matter is now pending legal proceedings, we will have no further comment at this time.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Flames had said January 21 that Dube was \u201cgranted an indefinite leave of absence\u00a0from the team while he attends to his mental health.\u201d Last week, the club\u00a0said\u00a0it had \u201cno knowledge of pending charges at the time Dillon\u2019s request for a leave of absence was granted.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hockey Canada apologized for its handing of the case<\/h2>\n

A month after the TSN report, the Canadian government announced\u00a0in June 2022 that it was freezing federal, public funding for Hockey Canada until the organization had submitted the complete results of its original, two-year investigation and plans for implementing change within Hockey Canada. <\/p>\n

During parliamentary hearings in June 2022, executives for Hockey Canada disclosed that it was notified of the incident the day after it was alleged to have taken place in 2018. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe immediately initiated a process to investigate, beginning by contacting police.
We commissioned an independent investigation and appointed an independent adjudication panel of judges to review the findings of that investigation,\u201d testified Tom Renney, Hockey Canada\u2019s former CEO. <\/p>\n

Renney confirmed during the hearings that Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit that the woman filed in April 2022, but he did not reveal the settlement amount. <\/p>\n

In July 2022, Hockey Canada published a letter apologizing for it said was inadequate action regarding the assault allegations, and said it was reopening an internal investigation. Three months later, the organization\u00a0announced\u00a0its CEO and board of directors were being replaced. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New information uncovered during a reopened investigation led to sexual assault charges being brought last week against five professional hockey players, four of whom are playing in the NHL, Canadian police said Monday, six years after the offense was allegedly committed. The case against the players, who were members of the Canada world junior hockey <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}