BURST
Just four days in, a judge has declared a mistrial and ordered a new jury be selected at the sexual assault trial of five players from Canada’s championship-winning 2018 world junior hockey team.
While the decision may have caused the trial to slightly wobble, it hasn’t derailed it. A new jury panel had already assembled at the London courthouse when Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia declared the mistrial on Friday morning.
Carroccia told the 14 jurors who were picked earlier this week at the high-profile London trial that they were being dismissed from their duties. She did not give reasons for the mistrial decision.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you but I have declared a mistrial in this case,” the judge said Friday morning. “As a result of that this jury is discharged. Thank you very much for your service and attention although it was brief. So you are now free to go.”
Friday will be a replay of the proceedings earlier in the week when new jurors and alternates will be selected.
Michael McLeod, 27, Alex Formenton, 25, Cal Foote, 26, Dillon Dube, 26, and Carter Hart, 26, are all charged with sexual assault in connections with allegations made by a woman, then 20, that she was sexually assaulted by several men in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel after meeting them at a Richmond Row bar, Jack’s, and having consensual sex with one of them.
McLeod faces an additional sexual assault charge for being a party to the offence.
The players were in London for a Hockey Canada gala in London on June 18 and 19, 2018 – several months after winning gold at the world juniors. All went on to pro careers, most notably Hart as the starting goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers, but they’re no longer under contract to NHL teams.
All five once again entered pleas of not guilty before the new jury panel on Friday morning as the process of selecting jurors began anew.
jsims@postmedia.com