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The Chicago Blackhawks are hiring a firm to habits an autonomous overview of sexual assault allegations in opposition to feeble video coach Brad Aldrich.
“Noteworthy has currently been mentioned and written regarding the 2 lawsuits filed in opposition to the group stemming from alleged occasions that came about in 2010,” Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz wrote in a memo, per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. “We desire to reiterate to you that we buy the allegations described in these lawsuits very severely. They in no blueprint deem this group’s culture or values.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman urged journalists Monday the league could maybe self-discipline franchise reckoning on the tip consequence of the investigation.
In February 2014, Aldrich received a nine-month penal complex sentence after pleading responsible to fourth-diploma felony sexual habits with a pupil between 16 and 18 years of age.
A feeble Blackhawks player filed suit in opposition to the team in April, asserting Aldrich sexually assaulted him and a teammate. The plaintiff also mentioned the group didn’t attain ample to leer into the allegations he made.
Adam Rogowin, the Blackhawks vice president for communications, mentioned the team took the allegations “very severely” and that they “lack merit” per what team officers chanced on at the time.
Nevertheless, a feeble high college hockey player in Michigan also filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Blackhawks in Could perchance well. The plaintiff, John Doe 2, mentioned he changed into once assaulted by Aldrich in March 2013 and claimed the Blackhawks displayed “dispute indifference or conscious dismiss for the safety of others” since they allegedly supplied definite references for Aldrich.
Rogowin mentioned issuing a observation “would be depraved” since the litigation is ongoing.
TSN’s Rick Westhead reported June 17 that front-situation of enterprise members of the Blackhawks, including then-president John McDonough, vice president of hockey operations Al MacIsaac and long-established manager Stan Bowman, held a gathering in Could perchance well 2010. At the meeting, abilities coach Paul Vincent reportedly defined that two players mentioned they’d been sexually assaulted by a video coach. Group officers allegedly declined to forward the allegations to Chicago police.
A member of the Stanley Cup-winning Blackhawks squad in 2009-10 urged The Athletic’s Impress Lazerus, Katie Strang and Scott Powers that “each man on the team knew” about the allegations.
The player also expressed frustration at what he believed to be express of no project by the Blackhawks.
“That doesn’t bother me, that they let him buy photos with the Cup,” the player mentioned. “What bothers me is that they fired him, however they didn’t buy it to the law enforcement officers. … They let him gain a job with a U-18 team. They let him trip work with minors. They let this happen.”
