Amid sex assault case, ex-Senator Alex Formenton appears to have exited hockey

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LONDON, Ont. — Former National Hockey League player Alex Formenton, now embroiled in a sexual assault case, appears to have walked away from his hockey career.

Formenton, 24, is charged with sexual assault along with four other members of Canada’s 2018 gold-winning junior hockey team. He is living in the Barrie area, working in the construction industry and training both in heavy equipment operation and administration.

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The details of Formenton’s current employment were outlined in Acting Regional Senior Justice Bruce Thomas’s decision to excuse all five players from having to attend pre-trial motions in their high-profile Superior Court of Justice trial in London “with the exception of those where oral testimony will be heard.”

A publication ban on the decision was lifted at pre-trial motion hearings this past week and released to the media. The first round of motions was expected to be heard on Thursday and Friday, but three more weeks of applications are planned starting Nov. 25.

Formenton, Dillon Dubé, 25, Carter Hart, 25, Michael McLeod, 26, and Cal Foote, 25, are all charged with sexual assault in connection with an 18-year-old woman at the Delta Armouries hotel in downtown London on June 19, 2018, after a Hockey Canada gala.

McLeod faces an additional charge of sexual assault “by being a party to the offence.”

All five players are expected to plead not guilty at trial and have chosen to have the case heard by a judge and jury.

The case has been on a fast-track through the court system. The players quickly chose to have a jury trial in the Superior Court. An eight-week trial has been set to begin on Sept. 8, 2025, but the door has been left open for the case to be heard starting as early as April 22, 2025, if all pre-trial matters have been addressed.

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Formenton played for the Ottawa Senators before spending last season playing in Switzerland. The other four players had been with NHL teams before they were put on leave once the charges were laid in January. None of them had their contracts renewed when they expired at the end of June.

All four are living outside the country or outside Ontario. In the decision, Thomas noted that McLeod, who played with the New Jersey Devils, and Dubé, who played for the Calgary Flames, had signed contracts with the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). McLeod is playing in Kazakhstan, while Dubé is in Belarus.

Foote, who also played for the Devils, and Hart, who was the starting goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers, continue to train in hopes of continuing professional hockey careers. Foote is living in Denver, Colo., while Hart is in Alberta and intends to move to Nashville, Tenn.

“It is clear that each of the applicants has a need to work or find work not only to sustain themselves, but to pay their expenses, which at this point, includes legal fees,” Thomas wrote in his decision.

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Each player provided affidavits to the court that said “(t)hey have confidence in their respective counsel to adequately protect their interests and undertake that they will not raise their absence in any subsequent appeal.”

While it is unusual to allow accused parties to be exempt from the pre-trial motion stage, Thomas said in his decision that he would make the order because each player “is represented by skilled and experienced counsel” who have pledged to keep in close contact with their clients and will appear on every application.

He noted that “the applicants have provided compelling economic reasons for their proposed absence, not simply because they would prefer not to attend” and that they’re committed to being in-person at the trial.

Thomas indicated he could revisit his ruling and how the players might attend the applications once the matters that may require their presence are reached.

The highly publicized allegations are that the woman met the hockey players at a Richmond Row bar and returned to the hotel with one of the players. The allegations are that others were invited into the room and she was sexually assaulted by several men.

The incident was investigated by London police and Hockey Canada. No criminal charges were laid once the investigation was completed in 2019.

The woman launched a $3.5-million lawsuit, which Hockey Canada quietly settled before it was publicized in May 2022. London police reopened the investigation and charges were laid earlier this year.

jsims@postmedia.com

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