5 members of Canadian 2018 junior hockey team plead not guilty in sex assault case
Five members of Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team pleaded not guilty Tuesday and the jurors who will hear their sexual assault case were selected.
Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were charged with sexual assault last year for an incident that allegedly took place in June 2018 when they were in London, Ontario, for a Hockey Canada gala celebrating their gold-medal win at that year's world junior tournament.
McLeod is facing an additional charge of being a party to the offense of sexual assault.
The players, all dressed in dark suits, entered their pleas one by one in a packed London courtroom as jury selection began Tuesday morning. None is on an NHL roster or has an active contract with a team in the league.
By the end of the day, 14 jurors and two alternates were chosen.
The trial is expected to begin Wednesday and last about eight weeks.
A woman sued Hockey Canada in 2022, alleging she was sexually assaulted in a hotel room by eight members of Canada's world junior team after a fundraising gala in London in June 2018. Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit, and then an investigation revealed the organization had two secret slush funds to pay out settlements on claims of sexual assault and abuse.
London police dropped their investigation in 2019 but began another internal investigation in July 2022 which resulted in the charges. Around the same time, the NHL launched its own investigation, though the results of that likely will not be released until the legal case is resolved.
