CHICAGO –
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman talked to Kyle Seaside on Saturday about what the league can do to raised shield its gamers after the previous first-round choose stated he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach in 2010 and his allegations have been largely ignored by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Susan Loggans, an legal professional representing Seaside in a lawsuit in opposition to the workforce, stated Bettman expressed his “honest remorse” over what Seaside had skilled. He additionally supplied the NHL’s assist with psychological providers and the rest that the league had obtainable.
“There was dialogue about what might be executed sooner or later to guarantee this sort of factor didn’t happen once more,” Loggans stated in an electronic mail to the AP.
Seaside, 31, is also slated to satisfy with Donald Fehr, the chief of the NHL gamers’ affiliation, on Saturday in a separate video convention name.
Messages have been left by the AP in search of remark from the NHL and the NHLPA.
The AP doesn’t usually determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault except they arrive ahead publicly. Seaside spoke with TSN on Wednesday and posted a press release on Twitter on Thursday expressing gratitude for the assist he had acquired prior to now few days.
The NHL fined Chicago $2 million for “the group’s insufficient inside procedures and inadequate and premature response” to Seaside’s allegations that he was sexually assaulted by Brad Aldrich in the course of the workforce’s Stanley Cup run in 2010.
Based on a report by an outdoor legislation agency, commissioned by the workforce in response to lawsuits by Seaside and a former highschool scholar whom Aldrich was convicted of assaulting in Michigan, senior leaders with the Blackhawks mentioned Seaside’s accusations at a gathering on Might 23, 2010, proper after Chicago superior to the Stanley Cup. Aldrich informed investigators the encounter was consensual.
Accounts of what was stated in the course of the assembly differ, however the report discovered there was no proof that something was executed in regards to the accusations earlier than then-team president John McDonough contacted the workforce’s director of human assets on June 14 — a delay that violated the group’s sexual harassment coverage.
Throughout these three weeks, Aldrich continued to work for and journey with the workforce. Former federal prosecutor Reid Schar, who led the investigation, stated Aldrich additionally “made an undesirable sexual advance” towards a 22-year-old Blackhawks intern.
Based on the Blackhawks’ report, Fehr was contacted twice about allegations related to Aldrich, together with by a Seaside confidant. Fehr informed investigators he could not recall both dialog, however didn’t deny that that they had occurred.
Fehr stated Wednesday evening in a press release that there was “little question” that the system had failed Seaside and “we’re a part of that system.”
