(670 The Score) While the Blackhawks would like to reach a settlement with the two individuals who have filed lawsuits alleging sexual assault by former assistant coach Bradley Aldrich, the attorney who represents both victims indicated that might not be the resolution.
“I can’t wait to try the case,” attorney Susan Loggans said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Tuesday afternoon.
Loggans’ comment was specifically referring to John Doe 1, the former Blackhawks player who alleged that Aldrich sexually assaulted him in 2010 and who informed members of the organization that May as the team was in its playoff run. On Tuesday, the results of a Jenner & Block invesgtiation into how the Blackhawks handled the sexual assault allegations back in 2010 were publicly released, with the findings showing the organization and its senior executives swept the matter under the rug with an “untimely response” and by “mishandling” the matter in their procedures, as the NHL termed it hitting the franchise with a $2-million fine. President of hockey operations Stan Bowman also resigned amid the fallout.
Loggans called it “total vindication” for John Doe for the truth to come out while criticizing the Blackhawks for how they mishandled the matter.
“It’s undisputed that they threw John Doe to the wolves and totally deserted him in order to win the Stanley Cup,” Loggans said. “And you know, people might say, this is a huge deal, this is our hometown team and all that kind of thing, but when you don’t have morals, what kind of victory is that? You ruin a person’s life to do this? And I’m going to go back to the point, they wouldn’t – the Blackhawks have continued to act the same way. They acted the same way after they won the Stanley Cup, and they acted the same way when I called their lawyer prior to filing suit and asked them to do an investigation, to validate that this happened and said we were willing to discuss it. And they said no. They just denied that it happened. So there’s a certain amount of arrogance that has existed from Day 1 that’s very unhealthy to everybody.
“I knew that this was a cover-up, that they decided to sweep John Doe under the bus in order to continue their shot at the Stanley Cup and win the Stanley Cup. All of that was not surprising to me. What I was really impressed by with the independent investigator was that they went further and found that there was policy that the Blackhawks had at the time that required immediate investigation (into sexual harassment/assault claims). They swept that under the rug too. This was a concerted decision on the part of management that this would hurt the Stanley Cup chances, so they were going to let it go.”
Asked how her clients are doing after the developments of Tuesday, Loggans responded that John Doe 1 was "overwhelmed with relief that the truth had finally come out and that he was really grateful to the investigator for doing such a thorough job." John Doe 2 and his family were "so grateful that an intelligent and ethical investigator was retained on this case," she said.