A mistrial has been declared in the sexual assault case involving five former world junior hockey players.
The trial had begun on Wednesday, but jurors were dismissed early after the judge said something had come up that she needed to discuss with the lawyers.
The jurors were called back on Friday, and a mistrial was declared.
The ruling means a new trial will be held for Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote, who have all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
Jury selection will begin Friday in the new trial.
The charges relate to an alleged incident that occurred in a London, Ont. hotel room in June 2018.
The dismissal of the jury happened after brief testimony from a detective with London Police, who was beginning to discuss the layout of Jack’s Bar. This is where the complainant met Michael McLeod, one of the five players on trial, before going back to a hotel room in the city in June 2018
According to the Crown’s opening submission on Wednesday, McLeod allegedly invited several teammates to his room, where a number of sexual acts occurred involving the complainant over the course of a few hours.
Each of the five accused players is alleged to have had sexual contact with the woman without her voluntarily agreeing to those specific acts.
Mistrial decision ‘shocking,’ Vancouver-based criminal lawyer says
Friday’s declaration of a mistrial came as a shock to one criminal lawyer in Vancouver.
Michael Shapray says the start of the trial has been highly anticipated, and as the reason for the mistrial is under a publication ban, there will be a lot of speculation as to what happened.
“The judge will have to determine the timeline of what happens next. It may be that they immediately look to get a new jury, but that’s not so easy, because picking a new jury requires you to bring panels of people into the courthouse and then pick a jury, and that jury has got to be available for the trial. So, I don’t know that they would have a panel of jurors just sitting on the sidelines,” Shapray said.
“I think right away, there’s going to be a delay until they can find a pool of people that they can pick a jury from. … I don’t know how long it’s going to be, because there’s so many people’s calendars and schedules that are going to have to be accommodated.”
Shapray says cases of mistrial are not common, calling them a “pretty drastic remedy.”
“It’s basically saying that the trial cannot continue. Something has occurred in the course of the trial that means that this case has to go off the rails completely. and cannot complete and has to be restarted again,” he explained.
As for the victim in the case, Shapray says that it’s already an incredibly stressful time as one gears up to testify in a trial, before the mistrial decision came down.
“I’m sure it’s going to be difficult to sort of grasp that there may be a delay in all of the mental preparation, to get on the witness stand, is going to have to be redone, essentially, at another time,” he said.
The trial was expected to last about eight weeks. A date for the new trial has not yet been released.
With files from Sonia Aslam