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An Ontario judge ruled on Monday that a textual conversation initiated by a member of the 2018 Canada Junior Hockey Team will not be accepted as proof in the sexual assault trial of his ex-teams.
The judge of the Superior Court, Maria Carroccia, said that the crown prosecutors, who had already tried To obtain the June 2018 conversation between Brett Howden and Taylor Radady, admitted as proof, did not meet the burden so that he is eligible as part of a hearing request.
A request for hearsay is a mechanism in which hearing evidence can be admitted if they are deemed necessary and reliable. Friday, the crown submitted the request after its request for submitting previous memories – a previous declaration was rejected in a form – was rejected.
The arguments put forward in a courthouse in London, Ontario, since last Thursday, focus on Howden’s textual conversation with Radady on June 26, 2018 – days after the alleged incident at the heart of the sexual assault trials of five of their ex-teams.
Howden and Radady do not face loads.
Howden faced questions Thursday In a SEE -Dire – essentially a trial in a trial – during this conversation. In this document, the Vegas Golden Knights Forward describes certain parts of the game of June 19, 2018, including a moment when he said that one of the accused, Dillon Dube, slapped the complainant on the buttocks.
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“Dude, I’m so happy that I left when the whole S – t went down haha,” said the message of June 26, 2018. “When I left, Duber (Dube) struck this girl – so hard, as if it were so bad.”
The Crown wanted to present this text as proof due to the lack of memory of Howden on certain details of the events, as well as the declarations he has made in the past.
Howden was tired on Thursday when he described to feel frightened and nervous after learning that Hockey Canada had launched an investigation into the meeting and realizing that he should explain the situation to his parents and his girlfriend, now his wife.
In his decision on Monday, Carroccia said that it was “often difficult to assess the truth of a declaration outside the court”. She cited the remarks she made on Friday when he rejected the previous request of the Crown and said that Howden’s text was not a statement made under oath.
“He was afraid and nervous,” she said, adding that Howden “cannot guarantee that it is factual.”
After reading the decision, the defense questioning Howden began.
Dube, Michael McLeod, Alex formenton, Carter Hart and Callan Fote pleaded not guilty of sexual assault resulting from what the allege crown was a non -consensual group sex with a 20 -year -old woman in McLeod’s London, Ontario, a hotel room in June 2018.
McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional accusation of having gone to the offense of sexual assault.
The court heard that the team was in the city for events marking its golden performance in the championship this year, and the woman, known as EM in court documents, was with friends when they met in a downtown bar on June 18, 2018.
After being with McLeod and his teammates at the bar, Em was going to have consensual sex with McLeod in his room early on the morning of June 19. The court heard EM, who said she was drunk and not a clear mind, was in the toilet after having sex with McLeod and came to a group of men in the allegedly invited room for a “3 ways” by McLeod in a group group.
Defense lawyers suggested that EM was not as drunk as she testified, wanted a “Wild night” With the players, was “Egging” them to have sex with her and the accused of having a “Clear agendaAt trial.
EM has rejected against these affirmations in a a counter-examination of several days And at points, the rejected, saying that she had been Amqué in the stay in the room, was disrespectful and was benefited by the group which, she said: “could see that I was out of my mind”.
The trial, which saw two juries rejected since its start at the end of April, takes place only by the judge and is expected to take place over eight weeks.
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