I have a hard time believing it was never perceived as anything more than unwanted sexual advances, and even it that was all it was, proper reporting and handling of it was never taken.
Separately, the only person that seems to have interviewed John Doe was the team guy who was the counselor or whatever, I am forgetting his name. Setting aside whether or not he was actually the appropriate person that should be handling a situation like this, if he did any kind of proper interview which it seems he did because he had many details, I have a hard time believing that he came away with any sort of description that he reported to the brass that fell short of sexual assault. But we can only go by the details they provide in the report. And like you said it was 14 years ago, the understanding of what is and isn't appropriate may have had different definitions of the time right or wrong. I only got through the exec summary but the fact that no one else properly interviewed either of the parties involved is abhorrent.
And yes, the police could have done something. At a bear minimum they would have talked to the parties involved. Which seems to be much more than any other person in the organization did. If I'm reading it right, the person who talked to John Doe never talked to BA, and the person who talked to BA never talked to John Doe. And the people who were responsible for all of it, never talked to either one. Can you imagine the courtroom where you have a case when no one person got the full story from both sides? Again, i could be wrong here though as I didn't read the full report.
James Gary is the mental skills coach I believe. The full report is really only 65ish pages. The rest are sources and things like that. From my (probably bad) comprehension...
- John Doe tells a friend about the actual assault, but doesnt want to tell anyone else (very understandable with shame, career concerns etc.)
- Skating coach Paul Vincent is said to have spoke with John Doe because he seemed to be in a bad place, and asked about Aldrich because he heard rumors. John Doe didnt give much info but confirmed it was about Aldrich.
- Black Ace 1 gets texts and a dick pic hitting on him
- Black Ace 1 friend/blackhawks employee gets info from Black Ace 1 about Aldrich being a creep with him and John Doe. The Blackhawks employee went to Macisaac about what they know. (The employee claims that they knew it was a sexual encounter, but John Doe and Black Ace 1 deny talking with the emloyee)
- Macisaac gets James Gary to speak with John Doe and Black Ace 1 about "invitations for sex from Aldrich"
- John Doe says that he told Gary of the whole sexual encounter. Gary told him "we will take care of this" and "everything will be ok"
- John Doe friend says that they were told Gary told John Doe to "drop it, and never speak about it again" (contradicted by John Doe)
- Gary says that John Doe told him of unwanted sexual advances and threatening his career. Gary said that John Doe denied any sexual contact with Aldrich
- Gary says Black Ace 1 denied everything
- Black Ace 1 says he told about the dick pic
- James Gary brings it to the brass and tells them the rumors have "something to it"
- The brass meet shortly after the Sharks sweep. The general concensus seems to be that Aldrich is beeing creepy with John Doe "trying to get in the sheets"
- Accounts are not clear on who did or said what, but seems like Q was pissed simply because he needs to coach a team to the cup and wants nothing to do with this. Bowman tries to make it clear that McD was responsible for taking the next steps.
- McD reports what "they know" to HR 3 weeks later
- HR meets with Aldrich with independant counsel where he is told they will put him on leave and investigate (finally) or he needs to resign and never have contact with the Blackhawks and John Doe again... But you can have your day with the cup and come to the banner raising.
So we will never know if the Blackhawks brass knew of the extent of the sexual assault or if they thought it was Aldrich being creepy hitting on young players.
Either way it does seem like everyone in the locker room/management at least heard rumors pretty quick, and they should have fired Aldrich immediately.
