Many questions remain in the high profile sexual assault case against five players from Canada’s 2018 World Junior hockey team, including what prompted London Police to reopen the investigation nearly three years later.
Eric Macramalla, a sports legal analyst for TSN and Forbes, says it’s unclear why authorities closed the case in 2019 without laying any charges.
During a media briefing on Monday, Police Chief Thai Truong apologized to the victim for the amount of time it took for police to press charges.
Macramalla tells VOCM News that it could suggest the investigation should not have been closed in the first place.
Listening to yesterday’s briefing, he says It’s not unreasonable to be under the impression that the current chief of police, who was not in charge at the time, disagreed with his predecessor’s decision to close the case back in 2019.
Players Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Cal Foote and Dillon Dube all face a single charge of sexual assault. Michael McLeod is charged with sexual assault and a party to the offence charge—meaning he is alleged to have organized and encouraged the offence.
(Left to Right: Dillon Dube, Michael McCleod, Carter Hart, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton. Photos via hockeydb.com)
All five players made their first court appearance Monday morning. Macramalla says the first appearance usually involves the charges being read, the accused making a plea, and bail arrangements, but that’s not what happened yesterday.
The usual arraignment did not happen because there were issues with disclosing documents and evidence to the five lawyers representing each player. Macramalla says it’s likely all five will be tried together, meaning that information was needed by each lawyer in order to proceed.
He expects the arraignment will go ahead when the case is called in court again on April 20.
