An independent review has cleared National Hockey League Players' Association executive director Donald Fehr of any wrongdoing in the handling of the Kyle Beach sexual assault allegations.
On Friday, the NHLPA made public a third-party review prepared by the law firm of Cozen O'Connor that concludes the NHLPA's failure to act on Beach’s reports stemmed from a failure of communication.
"We cannot identify any individual wrongdoing or institutional failures of policy or procedure by either Fehr, NHLPA personnel, or the (NHL/NHLPA's Substance Abuse and Behavioural Health Program) concerning the handling of Beach’s reports," said the report, which was released to public Friday afternoon.
"Beach’s warnings about (Brad) Aldrich were not addressed on account of miscommunication and misunderstanding, rather than any individual or systemic failure."
Beach, a former player in the Chicago Blackhawks farm system, reported being sexually assaulted by Aldrich, the team’s video coach from 2008 to 2010, during Chicago's 2010 Stanley Cup run.
In October, an initial report commissioned by the Blackhawks and prepared by the U.S. law firm Jenner & Block, indicated the encounter between Beach, then a 20-year-old minor leaguer, and Aldrich, then 27, happened on May 8 or 9 in 2010.
Beach told investigators that Aldrich, a video coach at the time, threatened him with a souvenir baseball bat before forcibly performing oral sex on him and masturbating on the player’s back, allegations that he also detailed in his lawsuit.
The report, which came in response to lawsuits by Beach and a former high school student Aldrich was convicted of assaulting in Michigan after leaving Chicago, also revealed Fehr was contacted twice about allegations connected to Adrich.
Player agent Ross Gurney told the Cozen O'Connor investigators that he contacted Fehr in late 2010 after learning through Beach that Aldrich had been hired by USA Hockey in connection with a tournament that was held in late December or early January 2011.
In the report, Gurney recalled referring to Aldrich as a "pedophile" or "sexual predator" in a phone call to Fehr, but did not provide the NHLPA boss with any details of what had allegedly transpired between Beach and Aldrich.
Fehr denied having any recollection of the call.
"An exhaustive review of the entirety of Fehr’s emails during the same time period failed to reveal any reference to his call with Gurney, much less any discussion of the alleged incident between Beach and Aldrich, a significant omission given Fehr’s documented practice of immediately following up with others on matters of much less significance," the report said.
The report also cleared Dr. Brian Shaw, a psychologist and co-administrator for the NHL/NHLPA's Substance Abuse and Behavioural Health Program, of wrongdoing despite being told of the Aldrich allegations by Beach and another player.
"Gurney and Beach walked away from their respective conversations believing that someone, possibly Fehr or another person at the NHLPA, or Dr. Shaw from the SABH program, had agreed to take responsibility for contacting USA Hockey," the report said.
"Dr. Shaw thought that others, either the union or Beach’s agent, would address Beach’s concerns about USA Hockey and that he was bound to keep what Beach had told him confidential."
The firm acknowledged the difficulty of reconstructing events from 11 years ago, and said the findings were based on “understandably imperfect and incomplete recollections of a few individuals, uncorroborated by documentary evidence.”
The firm said it provided the union’s general counsel with a series of recommendations for additional measures that could be put in place to handle similar situations better in the future. The NHLPA said its executive board voted to keep those recommendations confident for now “because they require further development by staff and evaluation by the board.”
The findings of the Blackhawks investigation rocked the team and led to sweeping changes in the front office and ripple effects across the NHL. Longtime Chicago general manager Stan Bowman and coach Joel Quenneville, who was with Florida, resigned in the aftermath after it was determined they were informed of the allegations and did not act appropriately. Aldrich told investigators the encounter was consensual.
The Blackhawks and Beach settled their lawsuit in December after meeting with a mediator. Terms of the settlement have not been released,
— With files from The Associated Press.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2022.
The Canadian Press
Note to readers: Corrects name of law firm Cozen O'Connor throughout
