Report: Lawyers for accused in 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case to file pre-trial motions before Oct. 23

Five members of the 2018 Canadian men’s world junior team await trial for the alleged London, Ont., sexual assault of a woman in June 2018, and their lawyers appeared virtually in a London court Tuesday afternoon, reports TSN’s Rick Westhead.

The accused are NHLer Michael McLeod (two counts of sexual assault, including one for aiding others in committing a sexual assault), NHLer Cal Foote (one count), NHLer Carter Hart (one count), NHLer Dillon Dube (one count) and former NHLer Alex Formenton (one count).

During the hearing Tuesday, a judge instructed lawyers to file pre-trial motions before Oct. 23 and scheduled 15 days beginning Nov. 25 for hearings related to the motions, Westhead reports.

Westhead spoke to Alison Craig, a Toronto attorney who has defended those accused of sexual assault but has no connection to the 2018 Hockey Canada case, to glean a sense of what the pre-trial motions could include.

According to Craig, as reported by Westhead, “pre-trial motions may include attempts by the defense to introduce the complainant’s text messages, and relevant social media posts, should they exist. The defense would also need the approval of the judge to try to obtain any medical records related to therapy, if they exist.”

Craig also told Westhead that “prosecutors and the defense would also likely file motions related to the admissibility of evidence via Hockey Canada’s third-party investigation. Some players may have only participated in that process because they thought they were not at risk of being charged.”

A lawyer for one of the accused players told the court Tuesday that the defense was still waiting for discovery – the process in which prosecutors to turn over all the evidence that has been gathered by police.

The next hearing date in the case will be May 14 in trial scheduling court, Westhead reports.

As accounted in a London Police Services press conference in early February by Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann, on June 18, 2018, the accused were in London, Ont., to celebrate their 2018 World Junior gold medal win with their teammates. After the Hockey Canada event, members of the team kept the celebration going, and some attended Jack’s, a bar in downtown London, where they met the victim. In the early morning hours of June 19, she went to the Delta London Armouries Hotel with one of the accused. The other four accused attended the same hotel – “and this is where the offense took place,” Dann said. “Later that morning, our service received a phone call from an individual related to the victim in this matter, seeking advice regarding a sexual assault.”

London Police initially investigated the alleged sexual assault from June 2018 to February 2019 and closed the case without charges, “as it was determined by investigators at that time that there were insufficient grounds to lay a charge,” said London Police Chief Thai Truong during the February presser.

A comprehensive review was initiated in July 2022, however, after the alleged victim filed a civil suit in court, which TSN reported in May 2022 was quietly settled by Hockey Canada for $3.55 million dollars.

The review involved “re-examining additional investigative steps, gathering additional evidence and obtaining new information,” Truong said. As a result, London Police found sufficient evidence to charge five men with sexual assault and confirmed the charges in the Feb. 5 presser.

During the NHL’s All-Star Game press conference earlier this season, commissioner Gary Bettman stated that there would be no immediate disciplinary action handed out to Dube, Hart, Formenton, McLeod or Foote, no movement to suspend them without pay, pending the results of the legal proceedings. The players will be paid the balance of their contracts while on leave.