Reports say that Carter Hart is one of the players being investigated for sexual assault.
According to a report released Tuesday by TSN’s Rick Westhead, five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior team are being charged with sexual assault. One of them is Flyers goalie Carter Hart.
The report says that Hart, Dillon Dube of the Flames, Michael McLeod as well as Cal Foote of the Devils, and Alex Formenton, who plays professional hockey in Switzerland, were all told to turn themselves into police in London, Ontario.
The statement below was put out Tuesday on Hart’s behalf by Megan Savard as well as Riaz Sayani of Savard Foy LLP. NBC Sports Philadelphia also got a hold of it.
Doolittle says that Formenton turned himself in on Sunday and was willing to “vigorously prove his innocence.”
“Carter Hart has been charged alongside one count of sexual assault, and we will take care of his case.” In a court of law, he will give a full response to that false accusation because that is the right place for it. We have nothing to say until then.
Hart was given a one-year leave of absence by the Flyers on January 23 for personal reasons. All of Hart, Dube, McLeod, Foote, and Formenton had recently taken time off from their clubs.
Five members of the 2018 Canadian world junior team were told to turn themselves in on January 24. They are being charged with sexual assault in connection with an alleged incident in June 2018.
Before Tuesday, no one knew if Hart’s absence was associated with the police study or the NHL’s probe into the claims that came from a lawsuit Hockey Canada was sued in April 2022.
Westhead says that all of the players are supposed to give up because the accusations against them are still not proven. On January 24, London police said they didn’t have any new information about their investigation but that they planned to give more information at a press conference on Monday, February 5.
“When the results of the investigations become public,” Flyers president and CEO Danny Briere said in a statement on January 24. “The NHL has made it very clear that teams should ask them all questions about investigations.”
Hockey Canada was sued because it was said that members of its 2018 under-20 world junior side sexually assaulted a young woman in London, Ontario, in June 2018.
A story from May 2022 by Katie Strang of The Athletic says that Hockey Canada and the woman settled the lawsuit. At this point, people in the organization, like Flyers players, are refusing to disclose anything else.
An investigation was started by the NHL in May 2022. The league said it would “strive to find the facts and, if this involves current NHL players, we will decide what action, if any, might be appropriate.”
For Hart, Megan Savard or Riaz Sayani from Toronto’s Savard Foy LLP emailed ESPN to say that “he has been charged in one count of aggravated sexual assault.”
He is not guilty, and he will give an exhaustive response to such a false accusation in the eyes of the law.
David Humphrey and Seth Weinstein, McLeod’s lawyers at Greenspan Humphrey Weinstein LLP in Toronto, wrote to ESPN again and said, “McLeod denies any criminal wrongdoing.” He’s going to say he’s not guilty and fight the case hard.
Foote’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan in Greenspan Partners LLP in Toronto, later sent ESPN an email saying that Cal is not guilty of the charge and is defending himself to clear his name.
The presumption of innocence and the right to an impartial trial that every person in Canada has are the most important things right now. Not a single piece of evidence has been shown or tested in court.