(Chicago) Representatives for the Chicago Blackhawks and a former player who is suing the team over the way they handled their sexual assault allegations against an assistant coach met with a mediator for the first time on Wednesday.
Susan Loggans, the attorney for Kyle Beach, confirmed the meeting but declined to comment further as the parties planned to issue a joint statement later today.
Chicago hopes to settle two lawsuits originally filed in May, one by Beach, accusing Brad Aldrich of sexual assault in 2010, and the other by someone Aldrich was convicted of assaulting, while the victim was a high school student in Michigan.
The Hawks claimed until mid-May that Beach’s claims lacked merit. But an independent review, commissioned by the team and released in October, showed the organization mismanaged the allegations.
Beach was allegedly assaulted by Aldrich as the club made their way to winning the Stanley Cup in 2010.
Aldrich told investigators the meeting was consensual.
Senior executives lost their jobs in Chicago and Florida, coach Joel Quenneville, who was in charge of the Blackhawks at the time, resigned. The NHL also fined the Blackhawks two million.
Loggans and club lawyers discussed a settlement in early November, meeting for about an hour. She then said that “each party had different points of view”.
During the investigation commissioned by the team, no evidence was found that owner Rocky Wirtz or his son, President Danny Wirtz, knew of the allegations before the Beach trial came to their attention, before its filing.
Danny Wirtz said in October he asked lawyers for the team to seek “a resolution that is fair and consistent with all of the circumstances.”