Jury discharged in 2018 World Junior trial in stunning turn of events with major impact on players involved!

Everything came to a halt on Friday when Justice Maria Carroccia made the significant decision to discharge the jury in the trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team.

Carroccia thanked the 14 jurors and dismissed them on Friday morning. The trial will now continue by judge alone.

“I have determined in this case that it is appropriate to discharge the jury,” Carroccia told the jury. “I know that you have invested four weeks in this trial and certainly, you have the thanks of myself, court staff, counsel for the time and effort that you put into this matter, but the jury will be discharged.

“So I thank you, and you are free to go.”

“We will let you know what this means for the continuation of the proceedings,” she said, per CBC.

Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, and Carter Hart are charged with sexually assaulting a woman identified in court documents as E.M. in June 2018 at a London hotel following a Hockey Canada golf and gala event. McLeod faces a second sexual assault charge as a party to the offence. They have all pleaded not guilty.

In a joint statement sent to the media as soon as Carroccia announced she was discharging the jury, Alex Formenton’s lawyers, Daniel Brown and Hilary Dudding, wrote that “a juror came to somehow believe that our courtroom demeanour was disrespectful of her.”

“This was an unfortunate misinterpretation. No defence counsel would risk alienating a juror, and nothing could be further from the truth in this instance. While it is true that co-counsel will speak with one another from time to time during a trial, this is commonplace. The very idea of counsel making light of a juror is illogical and runs directly counter to our purpose and function.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, Crown witness Tyler Steenbergen, a former teammate of the five men accused of sexual assault was giving his testimony. Yesterday, he was asked about a group text chat that began after the players learned Hockey Canada was doing an investigation.

Consequently, we found out the names of all people included in the group chat:

* Carter Hart.
* Jake Bean.
* Cal Foote.
* Dillon Dubé.
* Maxime Comtois.
* Drake Batherson.
* Michael McLeod.
* Brett Howden.
* Sam Steel.
* Alex Formenton.
* Tyler Steenbergen.

Carroccia adjourned court early, telling jurors: “There are some things I have to discuss with the lawyers this afternoon.”

The defence and the Crown have both agreed to the proceedings before only a judge.