The darkest days of Mike Ribeiro: account of the first week of a scabrous trial

An alleged victim who leaves the room in distress, a very explicit account of the sexual assaults he allegedly committed. Since Tuesday, a thousand miles from the glory he experienced on the NHL rinks, Mike Ribeiro has been at the heart of a scabrous trial which could earn him up to 20 years in prison, in what seems to be the days the darkest of a life already punctuated by several episodes of decline.

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In the courtroom of Mount Vernon, a small, very rural municipality of 2,500 inhabitants located in Franklin County, a two-hour drive from Dallas, the atmosphere since Tuesday has been very heavy, describe our colleagues from KLVT, a television station. from East Texas with whom The newspaper collaborates.

On one side of this room, which can accommodate around 70 people, we find the 43-year-old Montrealer, now living in California, surrounded by a large team set up for his defense.

However, only one of his relatives, a woman, has been at the father of three’s side since the start of the trial, according to JD Conde, journalist for KLTV.

Few emotions and lots of notes

Ribeiro, who has not yet been called to the stand in this trial which is expected to last until late next week, appeared very calm, explains Mr. Conde.

Without showing much emotion, the former top scorer of the Canadian, who collected nearly 800 points in more than 1,000 games in the NHL, takes a lot of notes during the testimony and often speaks to his lawyers.

On the other side of the room, there are the three alleged victims, their legal team, members of their families and friends of the three women, who seem to struggle to listen to the very detailed testimonies they deliver in court.

Two of them, who are not publicly named, accuse Ribeiro of sexual assault. One would have been committed by penetration “with his sexual organ” and the other, “with his finger”, according to the course documents sent to the Newspaper.

The third alleged victim suffered touching “to her breasts and vagina”, according to these same documents.

On a jet ski and a boat

The alleged facts allegedly occurred near Cypress Lake, on a jet-ski and on a boat, on June 23, 2021, 15 minutes from this courtroom where the former player, retired for seven years, goes daily in a large Black SUV since last Tuesday.

Ribeiro, who earned more than $55 million in his career, then owned a house there that overlooked the lake. He wanted to put it up for sale, it was explained in court, and it was with the idea of ​​visiting it to potentially buy it that two of the alleged victims found themselves there that day.

“A [censuré] arrogant »

These two women would have first met the ex-hockey player two days earlier, in a restaurant in the region.

^{Mike Ribeiro leaving the court in Mount Vernon, Texas, Thursday, January 25, 2024.}

A friend of some of the alleged victims told court Tuesday that Ribeiro then spoke to them.

She said she no longer remembers precisely what he said to them, but she did remember mentioning “that he was a [censuré] arrogant”.

She would have encountered the former Dallas Stars star again the next day, in another restaurant. At that point, Ribeiro allegedly approached her because his truck was parked near her car.

“He seemed like a normal person,” she told the judge and jury, adding that there would have been no conflict at the time.

“A glass! A glass!”

She and Ribeiro then exchanged phone numbers, the witness also explained, so that her two friends could visit her home.

The ex-hockey player then allegedly sent him text messages which were presented in court, in which we can read that he invited them to his house that same day for “a drink!” A glass!”

The friend of these alleged victims also revealed in her interrogation that Ribeiro allegedly tried to flirt with one of them.

In particular, he allegedly made comments saying he wanted to kiss her, without her showing any interest in his advances.

In her own testimony, the alleged victim agreed, adding in court that the text messages had made her “uncomfortable.”

“Traumatic flashes”

The following day, around ten people were found at Ribeiro’s house, including the three women who were victims of attack.

One of these alleged attacks took place on the Montrealer’s boat, which one of the women wanted to learn to drive.

The actions were allegedly committed while she was at the helm of the boat and Ribeiro was seated in the driver’s seat. Another person was also on board the boat.

She allegedly pushed his hand away and also shouted “stop!” Stopped!” (“cut it out!“, “cut it out!“)

“I’m told it’s normal that I froze, but I would have preferred to scream,” she added, describing her memories of what she would have experienced as “traumatic flashes.”

“Sorry, I’m f*cked”

The second alleged victim explained in court that she was also on the jet-ski with Ribeiro when the actions allegedly occurred.

She allegedly elbowed him and told him to stop, to which he responded: “Sorry, I’m f*cked.”

He then allegedly continued to touch her without her consent, and the woman drove the jet ski to the shore, where she found her mother, to whom she explained what had just happened.

During her own interrogation, the woman’s mother explained that her daughter was crying and then told her they had to leave.

To the hospital for tests

The third woman, who was also allegedly attacked on a jet-ski, was said to have been on board the boat when the former player was first touched.

She said she heard the woman, a friend of her aunt’s whom she didn’t know well, ask Ribeiro to stop.

Asked why she didn’t immediately report what she allegedly saw, she said she didn’t know “how to handle it [how to process it]so I kept that to myself,” while mentioning feeling “idiotic” several hours later, when she was at the hospital for tests, as the police had suggested.

“Out of the ordinary”

One of the investigators in the case, who was called before the court, said it was “out of the ordinary” to see three alleged victims file complaints of sexual assault.

One of them also had to take several breaks during her cross-examination, according to what KLTV observed. At the end of it, she left the room “in distress”.

The defense’s questions mainly revolve around the deletion by certain alleged victims of certain content that was on their cell phones, after the police told them not to do so.

They responded in particular that the content they had removed was “embarrassing”, but that it did not concern the cause.

▶ The trial will continue next week. The newspaper will continue to follow it with the collaboration of KLTV.

The fall of a former star

Mike Ribeiro has always had a reputation as a party animal, whose immense potential on the ice was surely squandered by his excesses off the ice.

And his first run-ins with the law were not new. Here is a summary of the times the 43-year-old Montrealer has made the headlines for his setbacks and his attempts to get back in control over the past 10 years.

• 2015: Mike Ribeiro is being sued in civil court by a former nanny who claimed $1 million from him, who said she was attacked while she was sleeping. The case was settled out of court a few months later.
• 2017: His agent, Bob Perno, says his client (who played his last NHL game in 2016-2017) has not heard from his loved ones for several months. Ribeiro would later explain, in an interview with TVA Sports, that when he retired, he decided that he was going to “do what I want”. “I wasn’t going to respond to anyone. Maybe it wasn’t the best way, but ever since I was very young, I did whatever was asked of me.”
• September 2017: Ribeiro enters the NHL rehabilitation program. Bob Perno then explains that he relapsed in his fight against alcohol.
• October 2017: Ribeiro is apprehended in Miami after being illegally on private property. His former wife paid his $1,000 bail.
• 2020: In an interview with TVA Sports, Ribeiro says he has taken control of himself since he turned 40. He explains that he wants to show his three children a different side of him. He also expresses his desire to one day be an assistant coach with the Canadiens and wants to help young hockey players in their development. “I want to speak to young people aged 14, 15 and 16 by telling them about my experience. I want to try to make young people understand that if you think about the NHL, don’t party.”
• April 13, 2022: Ribeiro was apprehended and imprisoned in Franklin County on two charges of sexual assault and one of attempted sexual assault on three women, which he allegedly committed on June 23, 2021. He was released the same day, after paying a fine. bond of $200,000.
• January 23, 2024: The trial, during which DNA evidence collected at the scene is expected to be presented, begins in Mount Vernon, East Texas. If convicted, Ribeiro faces a sentence that ranges from probation to 20 years in prison, according to local media.