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The Hockey Canada sexual assault trial comes to its conclusion today as the judge will deliver a ruling this morning in London, Ont.
Five players — Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton and Cal Foote — are all charged with sexual assault after an alleged incident in June 2018 in which a 20-year-old woman said she was sexually assaulted over a span of hours by the players in a London, Ont., hotel room. All five players pleaded not guilty.
To open Thursday's proceedings, Justice Maria Carroccia said, "having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence of E.M. and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me."
As part of her reasons — that are still being read in the courtroom at this time — Carroccia said, "in this case, I have found actual consent not vitiated by fear."
She has not yet given an official verdict.
Follow along as our writers provide news and updates from the courthouse.
LONDON, Ont. — Alex Formenton has been found not guilty, Carroccia announced.
In her decision, Carroccia said that she was "not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt" that E.M. had sex with Formenton out of fear.
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LONDON, Ont. — Carter Hart has been found not guilty. He was the first defendant to hear his verdict.
Justice Carroccia said she was unable to find reasonable doubt that E.M. did not consent to their sexual contact.
Before announcing her decision, Carroccia said that by acting in a sexual manner, masturbating and asking men to have sex with her, E.M. established a willingness to engage in sexual activity.
Carroccia also called Hart and E.M.'s sexual contact brief and said it was ended by him, and that she accepted the evidence that he provided.
LONDON, Ont. — Carroccia has said that, in her analysis, E.M. is not a reliable witness.
"I conclude that I cannot rely on (her testimony)," she said.
She is now reading assessments of the charges against the defendants.
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LONDON, Ont. — One of the prosecution's main allegations was that the players used a group chat to collude and concoct a false story that negatively portrayed E.M.
"I disagree with this," Carroccia said. She later added that she believed that the group text was an honest portrayal of the players' perception of the night.
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LONDON, Ont. — Carroccia, in her analysis, said that E.M.'s intoxication was a factor in assessing her reliability and made a point in noting how much more alcohol she'd consumed that night than, in her own assessment, was normal for her.
Carroccia also said that E.M. was observed on video walking and dancing without difficulty and speaking without slurring her words. She said that runs counter to E.M.'s own assessment of her level of intoxication.
"In my view, the plaintiff exaggerated her intoxication," Carroccia said.
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LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia highlighted opportunities in which, in her analysis, E.M. could've effectively ended the night if she wished.
One was when she left the bar with Michael McLeod. Other opportunities, in Carroccia's analysis, came in the hotel room.
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LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia continues to present what, in her analysis, are inconsistencies in E.M.'s earlier statements and things she said at trial and inconsistencies between her description of events and video taken of those events.
One example Carrocia gave: E.M. said that Michael McLeod guided her hand to his crotch on the bar dance floor, while the video showed that she placed her hand on McLeod's crotch herself.
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LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia is now getting into her analysis. Says there were "troubling" aspects to the manner in which E.M. gave evidence. She referenced a probe made by Dan Brown — attorney for Alex Formenton — into E.M.'s weight.
She had previously testified that she was 120 pounds on the night of the alleged incident, but Brown said that according to her medical records, she was 138 pounds. He said she had access to those medical records and questioned why she didn’t tell the jury her actual weight.
“Maybe you were trying to leave the jury with the impression that you were much smaller than you were to emphasize the size difference between yourself and the players,” Brown said at the time.
E.M. said she told the court what she had estimated at the time, not what was in the medical records.
“So you just said what you said at the time,” Brown said. “Rather than telling us the truth.”
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All five members of the 2018 national junior team who were charged went on to play in the NHL over the five-plus years between when the alleged assault occurred and when they took leaves of absence from their respective teams after being told to surrender to police in January 2024. All of their NHL contracts have since expired.
Formenton, 25, was a former star with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights before being drafted in 2017 by the Ottawa Senators. He was playing in Switzerland after failing to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Senators in December 2022. In November, Formenton filed a $20.5 million lawsuit against his former representatives alleging negligence, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
Hart was arguably the biggest star on the 2018 world junior team and had long been viewed as a franchise NHL goaltender. He was the No. 1 goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers when the team announced Hart would be taking an indefinite leave of absence, citing personal reasons.
Dubé was the captain of the 2018 world junior team and had established himself as a full-time member of the Calgary Flames. In August, he signed a one-year contract with Dinamo Minsk in the Kontinental Hockey League.
Cal Foote, 26, is the son of Vancouver Canucks coach Adam Foote. He had been a fringe NHL player over the course of his career and spent the majority of the 2023-24 season in the minor leagues before taking a leave of absence.
McLeod, 27, was in his fifth season with the New Jersey Devils and, like Dubé, has played the 2024-25 season in the KHL while awaiting trial. According to Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann of the London Police Service, the second charge against McLeod stems from the same incident in June 2018.
“The one charge he was laid with is in relation to his own actions and the party to the offense charge is in relation to aiding someone else and committing the offense,” Dann said at a news conference in February 2024.
The trial of five members from Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team charged with sexual assault began April 22 in London, Ont.
Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote have all been charged with sexual assault in connection to an alleged incident following a Hockey Canada fundraising event in 2018. The five players were charged with one count of sexual assault, with McLeod facing a second charge of sexual assault for “being a party to the offense.”
The allegations became public in late May 2022, when it was reported that Hockey Canada settled a lawsuit with a woman — referred to as E.M. in previously filed court documents — who said she was sexually assaulted by several members of the 2018 national junior team.
In E.M.’s initial lawsuit claim, she said that eight players assaulted her over several hours in a London hotel room. She said she met the group of players at a local bar the night of the alleged incident and had willingly left with one player. She said she engaged in consensual sex with that player, but that he invited several of his teammates into the hotel room without her knowledge or consent.
E.M. said she did not consent to any of the sexual contact or acts that followed, during which she said she was spat on, slapped on the buttocks, laughed at and degraded. According to her initial claim, the woman said she spent part of the night crying in the bathroom and despite wanting to leave, was coaxed by multiple players to remain in the hotel room. She noted that several of them had golf clubs in the room and that she felt physically intimidated and unable to leave.
No charges were laid after the initial London police investigation, which was closed in February 2019. However, news of the settlement sparked such public outrage that it prompted parliamentary hearings with the Canadian federal government, and London police reopened the case.
According to police, new evidence was gathered and additional interviews were conducted after the investigation resumed in 2022. The charges were announced by London police in February 2024.
Before the break, Carroccia also discussed the W(D) test, which helps weigh testimony of the accused (the players, in this case). The judge said she must go through the following reasoning:
According to the criminal law notebook (a resource shared by a defense lawyer not involved in the case), the purpose of the W(D) test is to ensure that the triers of fact understand that the verdict "should not be based on a choice between the accused’s and Crown’s evidence, but on whether, based on the whole of the evidence, they are left with a reasonable doubt as to the accused’s guilt."
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LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia began the legal analysis portion of her verdict by highlighting the presumption of innocence and that there is a high bar – beyond a reasonable doubt – to convict someone of a crime.
She explained that to prove sexual assault, the Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that: There was touching, the touching was sexual, and the touching was not consensual.
Carroccia said except for Foote, the first two questions are not an issue, and that the key issue in this trial is about consent.
We are now on a "health break." Court will resume in 15 minutes.
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LONDON, Ont. — Court has entered another 15-minute recess.
Beforehand, Justice Carroccia recapped many of the prosecution's major points, as presented. Many of them focused on establishing and strengthening E.M.'s credibility while showing that the defendants' credibility was compromised and their narrative "concocted." Consent, as it has been throughout the trial, is at the heart of it all.
A phrase repeated more than once in the recap of the prosecution's case is the allegation that E.M.'s "ability to consent was constrained by her intoxication and vulnerability." The prosecution's position is that all five defendants should be found guilty on all associated charges.
Justice Carroccia then recapped Michael McLeod's defense against the prosecution's case. Its fundamental point is that E.M. was out to have a wild night on July 18, 2018, initiated sexual activity with the players and regretted it after the fact.
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LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia went through each player's testimony.
Of the five defendants in the case, Carter Hart was the only player who took the stand.
Hart said that he was “open” to a three-way sexual encounter when he received a text message invitation from McLeod that night and, after arriving to McLeod’s hotel room, received oral sex from E.M. Hart said the oral sex was consensual and that E.M. repeatedly asked players to have sex with her.
His attorney, Megan Savard, previously told the court that Hart secured verbal and nonverbal consent from E.M. prior to the oral sex and suggested that Hart asked E.M. for a “blowie” as an exercise in “boundary setting” because he did not want to have vaginal sex with her.
LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia is now going over the testimony from Brett Howden. During the trial, she ruled that a text message by Howden to a teammate describing Dillon Dubé smacking E.M. was not admissible as evidence. Carroccia denied the Crown’s request to admit Howden's text to Taylor Raddysh on June 26, 2018, in which he described relief having left the London, Ont., hotel room after Dubé slapped a woman on the buttocks.
“Dude, I’m so happy I left when all that sh– went down. Ha, ha,” Howden wrote, adding, “Man, when I was leaving, Duber was smacking this girl’s ass so hard. It looked like it hurt so bad.”
During his testimony, Howden said he was unable to recall the events described in the text message.
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LONDON, Ont. — Recess is over, and Justice Carroccia has resumed her recap. Her early focus is on the testimony of Tyler Steenbergen, a member of the team who was not charged with any crime. Carter Hart's actions were a focal point of his time on the stand.
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LONDON, Ont. — Outside the courtroom, the defendants are clearly relieved. Dillon Dubé was the first out, with a smile on his face, and headed toward another set of doors. Michael McLeod tearfully embraced his family by the metal detectors in front of the doors.
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LONDON, Ont. — The court is taking a 15-minute recess, and Justice Carroccia says she's about halfway through her reasons.
LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia also spent some time recapping what was said in the consent videos recorded by Michael McLeod that night in London.
In the first video, E.M. says, "I'm OK with this." In a second, she said, "It was all consensual."
Carroccia says E.M. did "not display any signs of intoxication” in the videos and had “no difficulty speaking." E.M. alleged in court that, although she said it was all consensual, that is not how she felt at the time.
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