The world juniors sexual assault trial will proceed with only the judge, after the jury was dismissed early Friday.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia’s made the decision shortly after court proceedings got underway for the day.
“I have determined in this case that it is appropriate to discharge the jury,” Carroccia said to the jury, thanking the 14 members and dismissing them.
The jury had spent the past two-and-a-half weeks in a London, Ont., courtroom hearing the Crown’s evidence in the case, including more than a week of testimony from the female complainant at the centre of the allegations against five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team.
Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have all pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault stemming from what the Crown alleges was non-consensual group sex in McLeod’s room at the Delta hotel in London in June 2018.
The woman, whose identity is protected by a standard publication ban and is identified as E.M. in court documents, testified for two days before facing sometimes tense cross-examination from defence lawyers for each of the accused. She was allowed to finish testifying Wednesday.
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Former world juniors team member Tyler Steenbergen, who has not been charged, had been testifying for a second day Thursday when proceedings were halted.
The jury was dismissed because one juror sent the judge a note stating they believed Formenton’s lawyers, Daniel Brown and Hillary Dudding, would “turn to each other and laugh as if they are discussing our appearance” when the jury was entering the room.
The judge said she was concerned this could impact some jury members’ ability to fairly decide this case and that it could have a chilling effect on the defence lawyers.
In a statement, Brown and Dudding called the juror’s note an “unfortunate misinterpretation.”
“No defence counsel would risk alienating a juror, and nothing could be further from the truth in this instance,” the lawyers’ statement said.
“The very idea of counsel making light of a juror is illogical and runs directly counter to our purpose and function.”
Brown and Dudding added the move to a judge-only trial was “a regrettable development for Mr. Formenton,” who had “very much wanted to be tried by a jury of his peers,” but expressed confidence Carroccia “will ensure a full and fair proceeding.”
A mistrial was declared in late April just three days into proceedings, with a new jury selected hours later. At that time, the Crown had presented its opening statement and had begun to lay out its evidence in the case.
Global News can now report that the judge declared a mistrial out of concern that the first jury was tainted.
A member of that jury accused Dudding of initiating a conversation while in line for lunch. Dudding denied this and said any contact with the juror was inadvertent.
Dudding and Brown declined to comment on the mistrial when asked by reporters Friday.
The move to a judge-only trial means the case can proceed without having to start over like it did after the mistrial was declared. That means the complainant will not have to testify again.
Steenbergen resumed his testimony Friday after the jury was discharged.
The trial has been expected to last a total of eight weeks.
—With files from Global’s Jeff Semple
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