NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to Kyle Beach about what the league can do to better protect its players, after he said he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach and his allegations were largely ignored by the Chicago Blackhawks.
Susan Loggans, an attorney representing Beach in a lawsuit against the team, said Bettman had expressed “sincere regret” for what the former first-round pick had gone through. He also offered to help the NHL with psychological services and whatever the league had available.
“There was a discussion about what could be done in the future to ensure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again,” Loggans said in an email to The Associated Press.
The 31-year-old Beach is also set to meet Donald Fehr, the head of the NHL Players Association (NHLPA), in a separate video conference on Saturday.
Beach spoke to TSN on Wednesday and released a statement on Twitter on Thursday expressing gratitude for the support he had received in recent days.
NHL fined Blackhawks two million US dollars for “the organization’s inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and late response” to Beach’s allegations that he was sexually assaulted by Brad Aldrich during the playoff round the team in 2010. The Chicago team won the Stanley Cup that year.
According to a report from an outside law firm, commissioned by the team in response to lawsuits brought by Beach and a former academic, for whom Aldrich was convicted of assault in Michigan, senior Blackhawks leaders have discussed of Beach’s accusations at a meeting on May 23, 2010, just after the Chicago team qualified for the Stanley Cup Final. Aldrich told investigators the meeting was consensual.
Accounts of what was said during the meeting vary, but the report found that there was no evidence that anything was done about the charges before the team chairman of the At the time, John McDonough, only contacted the team’s human resources director on June 14 – a delay that violated the organization’s sexual harassment policy.
During these three weeks, Aldrich continued to work and travel with the team. Former federal prosecutor Reid Schar, who led the investigation, pointed out that Aldrich also “made an unwanted sexual advance” to a 22-year-old Blackhawks intern.
According to the Blackhawks report, Fehr has been contacted twice about allegations related to Aldrich, including by a confidant from Beach. Fehr told investigators that he did not recall either of the conversations, but did not deny that they had happened.
Fehr said in a statement, released Wednesday night, that there was “no doubt” that the system had failed Beach and that “we are part of this system.”