Blackhawks organization allegedly refused to act on sexual abuse allegations back in 2010
Disclaimer: This story contains serious, sensitive and potentially upsetting subject matter. Please proceed with caution.
There is a massive black cloud hanging over the Chicago Blackhawks organization on Thursday after a report surfaced alleging that the Blackhawks refused to involve police after a pair of players came forward with sexual abuse allegations against former video coach Brad Aldrich back in 2010, during the Hawks' playoff run.
Apparently, during a meeting with former Blackhawks president John McDonough, VP of hockey ops AL MacIsaac, GM Stan Bowman and James Gary, the team's sports psychologist, former skills coach Paul Vincent brought the allegations forward and requested that the execs contact the Chicago Police's sex crimes division. Vincent's request was denied.
The players are known to TSN, according to the author of the report, Rick Westhead, but due to the fact that the reporter does not have the victims' consent, their identities remain anonymous.
The defendant's legal representation, John Stiglich has stated that due to the statute of limitations laws in the State of Illinois, the case should be dismissed as it is not within the threshold of 300 days from the time of the incident. Part of the defense in this case is that, although the plaintiff reported the crime and sought counseling for it, he did not have to wait 11 years to file a lawsuit against the defendant.
A witness in the case stated that Aldrich had lured the players to his apartment (on separate occasions), got them drunk, displayed pornographic movies and attempted to perform oral sex on them.
The aforementioned James Gary, the team's sports psychologist, allegedly convinced at least one of the victims of the abuse "that the sexual assault was his fault, that he was culpable for what had happened, [and had] made mistakes during his encounter with the perpetrator and permitted the sexual assault to occur," according to Westhead's report.
To read more about the shocking and upsetting incident, I've linked Westhead's full story below.
Source: Rick Westhead - TSN.ca
