5 former world junior hockey players charged with sexual assault choose jury trial
Five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey group who’re charged with sexual assault in a 2018 incident in London, Ont., have chosen to be tried by a jury.
Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton have been charged with sexual assault final month. McLeod can also be going through an extra cost of sexual assault for “being a party to the offence.”
In a joint assertion, their attorneys stated the 5 gamers chosen a jury trial earlier this week and are “confident that jurors drawn from the community will decide this case fairly and impartially after hearing all the evidence and testimony.”
The costs within the case relate to an alleged incident at a lodge in London in June 2018, after members of the world junior group celebrated a gold-medal win.
The investigation was initially closed with out costs in 2019 nevertheless it was reopened in 2022. London’s police chief apologized to the complainant earlier this month for the delay in laying costs within the case.
Jury trials can be found to these accused of essentially the most critical crimes, often called indictable offences, akin to homicide. They might also be an possibility for these accused of so-called hybrid offences, akin to sexual assault.
The case is due again in courtroom April 30.
The NHL, which performed its personal parallel investigation, has stated it’ll anticipate the judicial proceedings to play out earlier than taking every other steps. Hart, McLeod, Foote and Dube are every on a depart of absence from his respective group, and all are set to be free brokers after this season.
Because of that, Commissioner Gary Bettman stated the league is content material to let the gamers be paid for the rest of the season whereas away and their contracts expire, moderately than situation suspensions.
“At this stage, the most responsible and prudent thing for us to do is await the conclusion of the judicial proceedings, at which point we will respond as appropriate at the time,” Bettman stated in early February at All-Star Weekend in Toronto.
