So, if you haven’t heard about it yet, the hockey athlete, Kyle Beach sued the Chicago Blackhawks team earlier this year. In case you don’t know, he joined the Chicago Blackhawks team at the NHL entry draft in 2008.
(Kyle Beach/NHL)
Here are the facts:
Beach sued the team on May 7 of this year, stating that in 2010, then-video coach Brad Aldrich sexually assaulted him and a teammate during Chicago’s Stanley Cup run. The team ignored it but, last week, they released the findings of an investigation pursued by Reid Schar, a former fed prosecutor.
Schar released his findings which showed that on May 8 or 9 from 11 years ago (which makes it year 2010), Aldrich and 20-year-old Beach at the time, and just out of junior hockey, might I add—had a sexual encounter.
Aldrich said that it was consensual, and Beach said that it was not. In fact, Beach told investigators that Aldrich did more than just threaten physical violence against him unless he engaged in the act.
This next part is also going to be cringing because according to the report, he said that Aldrich told him he “needed to act like he enjoyed the sexual encounter or [he] would never play in the NHL ‘or walk’ again.”
Basically, Schar’s reports also showed that the big guys of the team talked, and instead of focusing on what Beach’s situation was at the time, they focused on getting into the Stanley Cup finals.
His lawyer, Susan Loggans, said last Saturday that she and Beach are having a meeting scheduled today with the team to discuss the case on the agenda.
Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said that he has instructed team attorneys to “see if we can reach a fair resolution consistent with the totality of the circumstances”.
General manager Stan Bowman and senior vice president of hockey operations Al MacIsaac were fired for their handling of Beach’s allegations when they learned about them in 2010.
Honestly, my heart goes out to Kyle Beach. He is incredibly brave for coming out and facing all of this. I want to say that I hope he gets the justice he deserves but I also know that it will never be truly justified because what’s done is done.
I hope that all teams learn from this and really do what’s best for their members going forward.