A new set of disturbing details have emerged regarding former Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich’s alleged sexual assault of an anonymous former player in May 2010.
According to an amended lawsuit obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday, Aldrich raped a player after luring the player to his apartment “under the premise that Aldrich would go over game clips.”
Upon the player’s arrival at Aldrich’s apartment, he allegedly turned on pornography and began to masturbate in front of the player. When they attempted to flee, Aldrich “blocked the only exit” and “physically threatened” him with a souvenir-style Chicago Cubs baseball bat.
The lawsuit states that Aldrich told the player that he would “never play in the NHL… if (he) did not engage in non-consensual sexual activity with Aldrich at that time.”
Following the incident, Blackhawks skills coach James Gary convinced the player that the situation was his fault. Another skills coach, Paul Vincent, informed a group of franchise executives about Aldrich’s wrongdoings, but the executive group allegedly refused to notify the police.
Also in the amended suit, one of the players alleged the incident with Aldrich led to homophobic and “humiliating trash talk” during practices and scrimmages where Hawks-employed coaches were present. The player claims the team “permitted its players to repeatedly harass” him, calling him slurs and asking if he wanted to engage in oral sex.
On Thursday, Blackhawks president of hockey operations and GM Stan Bowman — who served as the team’s GM in 2010 and was reportedly among the group of executives whom Vincent had notified — addressed the allegations publicly for the first time since the original lawsuits were filed.
“We take this very seriously,” Bowman maintained. “I take this very seriously. But we have to let the process play itself out. That’s where things are today. We’re going to let this play itself out.
“We need to give the experts (investigating this) the necessary time and the latitude to do their job well. I am eager to speak about this in more detail in the future, but for now I have to respect the pending litigation and the independent review that’s underway.”
Chicago law firm Jenner & Block is currently conducting the investigation, which began on June 28.
