May 16th, 2025, 04:36 PM ET
LONDON, Ontario – A judge who handled the trials of five Canadian hockey players accused of sexual assault dismissed the ju appellant on Friday after complaints that the defense attorney was laughing at some of the ju appellants.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Maria Carrotcha handles famous cases herself.
The issue came on Thursday after one of the ju judges submitted a memo showing that he felt he was being examined and laughed at by a lawyer representing one of the defendants when he entered court every day. Attorneys Daniel Brown and Hilary Dudding denied the allegations.
Carrotcha said she had never seen any behavior that raised her concerns, but she concluded that a negative impression of the ju umpire’s defense could have an impact on the ju umpire’s fairness and was an issue that could not be improved.
Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Cal Foot and Alex Formentton were charged with sexual assault after an incident last year with a 20-year-old woman who allegedly happened to celebrate the championship in a junior tournament that year when she was in London. McLeod faces additional charges of being a party to a sexual assault crime.
Everything pleads not guilty. None of them are on the NHL roster or have aggressive contracts with league teams.
The woman, who appears via a video feed from another room in the courtroom, testified that when the man began to come to his hotel room, she was drunk, naked and scared, and felt that he had to go with what the man wanted from her. Prosecutors allege that she did what the player wanted without taking any steps to ensure she voluntarily agreed to sexual conduct.
The defense attorney cross-examined her for days and suggested that she actively took part in or began sexual activities as she wanted a “wild night.” The woman said she had no memory of saying them and the man could have seen her not in her righteous mind.
In 2019, police investigation into the incident was closed without charge. Hockey Canada ordered its own investigation, but it dropped it in 2020 after a long-term effort to get women involved. These efforts resumed in 2022 amid protests against the settlement reached by Hockey Canada and other women with women.
Police announced criminal charges in early 2024, saying they were able to proceed after gathering new evidence that they did not provide details.
