Blackhawks refused to report sex abuse of players to the police

[WarLax]

This seems like......an extremely egregious set of details to just leave out of your initial filing. Wtf?

I mean I'm not a lawyer, but who filed that complaint and just thought "yea let's leave the part with the baseball bat, threats, and locker room bullying out."

Reeks of incompetence or just flat out bullshit. I can barely wrap my head around it.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

So why was this not disclosed in initial claim? Also now the player it is said was member of team for years not simply a black ace as many speculated or someone who wasn't around after cup win nor were they out of league , job , lost wages , etc as initial suit claimed in damages as a result of incident

Also the 2nd lawsuit was amended to state team gave a job verification while original claim was that team gave positive reference (Which Strang reporting said did not happen). Hawks went for dismisal of 2nd suit saying claim of positive job reference was false and now its been amended to simply list that Hawks provided "Employment Verification"

If anything this makes it better legally for Hawks IMO as players allegations originally dont match with new claims also the 2nd lawsuit claim that "Hawks gave positive reference' seems to have been untrue

These new amended lawsuits actually strengthen Hawks legal claims

 

[Illinihockey]

This is a serious claim. So not only was 'Doe' forced into non-consensual stuff, but his teammates also (allegedly) ridiculed him for his experience, which means they knew about it. This is a lot to comprehend if true.

geez why won’t any players publicly back the plaintiff? Also, this is exactly why sexual abuse survivors don’t come forward

 

[Illinihockey]

This seems like......an extremely egregious set of details to just leave out of your initial filing. Wtf?

I mean I'm not a lawyer, but who filed that complaint and just thought "yea let's leave the part with the baseball bat, threats, and locker room bullying out."

Reeks of incompetence or just flat out bullshit. I can barely wrap my head around it.

because a complaint just sets out a cause of action, you don’t have to plead every fact of the case

 

[thesaadfather]

Not to state the obvious here, but holy hell that’s awful. Not going to pretend to understand what the amending of statements and the new details mean. I have no idea if this casts doubt on the case that things are changing, or if this is common stuff. But barring proof contrary to what is alleged in the lawsuits, hard to see a scenario where the Hawks don’t clean house and receive some sort of punishment from the league. This whole thing is horrific.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

because a complaint just sets out a cause of action, you don’t have to plead every fact of the case

You really think its a reasonable legal strategy to leave out threat from bat and attempted sexual assualt among other things when filing a claim against Hawks with allegations put forth of a coverup by team?

 

[Toews2Bickell]

the timeline is getting a little hard to keep track off...things that have been said about plaintiff - high draft pick, out of the league shortly after the 2010 season, incidents occured in spring of 2010...now its being said that the player endured harrassment from teammates 'for years' in practices and scrimmages so no longer isolated to 2010 and presumably with the team multiple seasons beyond that point...confusing stuff

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

the timeline is getting a little hard to keep track off...things that have been said about plaintiff - high draft pick, out of the league shortly after the 2010 season, incidents occured in spring of 2010...now its being said that the player endured harrassment from teammates 'for years' in practices and scrimmages so no longer isolated to 2010 and presumably with the team multiple seasons beyond that point...confusing stuff

Exactly in original damages request the derailment of career was cited but this would appear to contradict initial claim if player was with teams for years after event

 

[hawksrule]

You really think its a reasonable legal strategy to leave out threat from bat and attempted sexual assualt among other things when filing a claim against Hawks with allegations put forth of a coverup by team?

It’s not “leaving it out” of the litigation. The complaint only has to state a cognizable claim to avoid a motion to dismiss. Nitty-gritty details are left for later.

 

[migi]

Well this looks bad. Really bad.

 

[Illinihockey]

You really think its a reasonable legal strategy to leave out threat from bat and attempted sexual assualt among other things when filing a claim against Hawks with allegations put forth of a coverup by team?

yes, because the charge is the cover up

 

[CallMeShaft]

While the plaintiffs' story doesn't seem to line up all too well, even if half of all this is true, it's pretty damning.

Hawks should admit some level of fault, settle out of court with these individuals, remove those in charge who did nothing (Bowman, for example), and try to move on. Maybe even announce a logo and name change starting the 22-23 season; they'd hardly be the first company to try to shake up their image after something like this.

 

[Pez68]

This seems like......an extremely egregious set of details to just leave out of your initial filing. Wtf?

I mean I'm not a lawyer, but who filed that complaint and just thought "yea let's leave the part with the baseball bat, threats, and locker room bullying out."

Reeks of incompetence or just flat out bullshit. I can barely wrap my head around it.

Seriously. Wtf.

 

[ItWasJustified]

Maybe even announce a logo and name change starting the 22-23 season; they'd hardly be the first company to try to shake up their image after something like this.

That has absolutely nothing to do with anything though. Changing logo and name just makes it even worse and even more weasel bullshit.

 

[Pez68]

I'm having a hard time understanding this. If the allegations about homophobic slurs and bullying are true, these lawsuits make no sense. That's a much, much bigger allegation. You're talking about a hostile work environment, discrimination, sexual harassment, emotional trauma, so on and so forth... The Hawks would have MAJOR liability, in that case, as this was happening at the workplace, and being done by employees. You would think that would be the main focus of their suit....

Something isn't adding up here.

 

[Illinihockey]

I'm having a hard time understanding this. If the allegations about homophobic slurs and bullying are true, these lawsuits make no sense. That's a much, much bigger allegation. You're talking about a hostile work environment, discrimination, sexual harassment, emotional trauma, so on and so forth... The Hawks would have MAJOR liability, in that case, as this was happening at the workplace, and by employees. You would think that would be the main focus of their suit....

Something isn't adding up here.

statute of limitations

 

[Marotte Marauder]

Let's remember that a certain someone on Hawks was suspended for homophobic slurs against an opponent.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

no clue how people can have such conviction in what they're saying on this case, one way or the other...mainboard in particular

 

[Pez68]

statute of limitations

That applies to pretty much every part of "John Doe's" lawsuit. Eleven years later, what can he even sue for? This also doesn't line up with the "ruined his career and cost him future earnings" if the player allegedly endured this bullying "for years". It's like they are contradicting themselves.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

no clue how people can have such conviction in what they're saying on the mainboard thread...

Many of the same people tried and convicted Kane on allegations 6 years ago so is it really a surprise?

Allegations are all that some people require to find someone guilty of something nowadays especially in twitter/media fueled world of demanding "Instant justice" and "Something has to be done now"

If Hawks did anything wrong or covered it up they will be held accountable but waiting for legal process to playout should not be an unreasonable ask especially when people's lives , reputations , etc are involved

 

[Pez68]

Many of the same people tried and convicted Kane on allegations 6 years ago so is it really a surprise?

Allegations are all that some people require to find someone guilty of something nowadays especially in twitter/media fueled world of demanding "Instant justice" and "Something has to be done now"

If Hawks did anything wrong or covered it up they will be held accountable but waiting for legal process to playout should not be an unreasonable ask especially when people's lives , reputations , etc are involved

This case is so all over the place that I have no idea what's true and what's not.

 

[ClydeLee]

Many of the same people tried and convicted Kane on allegations 6 years ago so is it really a surprise?

Allegations are all that some people require to find someone guilty of something nowadays especially in twitter/media fueled world of demanding "Instant justice" and "Something has to be done now"

If Hawks did anything wrong or covered it up they will be held accountable but waiting for legal process to playout should not be an unreasonable ask especially when people's lives , reputations , etc are involved

In what world are people who did wrong doing in corporations held accountable?

 

[Blue Liner]

For what it’s worth (maybe nothing at all) off the record multiple players have said they knew nothing about these alleged things today. Could be BS, could be not. Some things in this timeline don’t add up. It’s just all over the place.

I know it was a different time compared to now, but I have such a hard time believing a Q and Toews-lead team would allow that kind of harassment and abuse to go on, let alone within some context of knowing these things occurred. Just really tough to imagine that. This thing is just so ugly.

 

[HawksBeerFan]

In what world are people who did wrong doing in corporations held accountable?

Come on man, everyone knows the people who have it hardest in our society are middle class white guys from the suburbs.

Our justice system in this country is an absolute disaster and frankly I think just about everyone knows it. Whatever the outcome to this situation with the Blackhawks is, it's almost certainly not going to be satisfying to anyone (and you can apply that to general wrong doing by corporations in the US). Our justice system is a system designed to protect property rights, is it really so surprising it's completely inadequate at administering justice when it's a human issue?

It's just kind of sad to me to see so many hiding behind an obviously flawed system and using that as a justification to blindly support a team they cheer for.

 

[deytookerjaabs]

It's just kind of sad to me to see so many hiding behind an obviously flawed system and using that as a justification to blindly support a team they cheer for.

The onus of victims or the state being responsible for pressing charges is designed to protect you, it's not flawed in the least. If ****ing suits (who are glad to corrupt literally everything they touch) are allowed the ability to just press charges over random incidents "The System" would be 100 times worse for you and I.

Step back for a minute and think.