Defence resumes questioning woman at sexual assault trial of former world junior hockey players

Defence presses complainant on remembering, imbibing at jr. Hockey sexual assault tribulation

'Consent videos' a focus of ex-world junior hockey players' trial

Complainant asked about her behaviour at world junior hockey sex assault trial

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Video evidence, NHLer testimony raise questions in world junior sexual assault trial

Brown tells E.M. He has a few more questions about Jack’s bar, and then he’ll start asking her about her time at the Delta hotel.

Brown tells E.M. To recall her testimony that she didn’t have any drinks after “the man in the white dress shirt” left. (That man is Matt Maccarone, who was in his late 30s and was out with the world junior team on the night in question in June 2018.)

E.M. Says she had two Jägerbombs, then Maccarone poured one down her throat. She says that was the last drink she remembers having with the man in the white dress shirt, but she may have had more afterwards — she doesn’t remember.

Court is shown video of Maccarone leaving Jack’s bar around 1 a.m.

The complainant, E.M., is back in the closed-circuit television (CCTV) room and the jurors are in their seats.

Throughout the trial, she’s been testifying via CCTV, which is then broadcast on a big screen in the main courtroom.

Proceedings restarted at 10:30 this morning (rather than the usual 10 a.m.) because other juries were being chosen in the London courthouse.

Since there are only two working elevators, there would have been quite a traffic jam if the potential jurors, the London hockey trial’s jury and all the defence teams were showing up at once.

Dan Brown, the lawyer for Alex Formenton, one of the accused men, is picking up his cross-examination this morning.

As defence lawyers have been grilling E.M., the complainant in this case, they've commented several times that she had clearly been well prepared for the proceedings.

Legal experts told us those preparations would have started long before the trial. Counsel can spend months with their clients studying evidence and discussing how best to answer questions in court, stressing the need to maintain composure.

It’s a careful balance — under-preparing can create issues, but overpreparing can make answers seem too rehearsed. Ultimately, there’s no way to guarantee how testimony unfolds in court.

"Just like if you play sports — you can practise as much as you want. It's different when you actually get out on the court, or on the ice or whatever it is and play the game," said Christopher Sherrin, a law professor at London's Western University.

Read more about how complainants prepare for the witness box here.

Each of the five accused men in this trial has a defence team. Their respective lawyers get an opportunity to question the complainant, E.M.

The trial began April 25 with jury selection and proceedings got underway April 28.

Court left off on Friday with questions from the third of those five teams, meaning E.M. Is a little more than halfway through her time being questioned via video from another room.

She has accused the five men of assaulting her at a London hotel after a night out at Jack’s bar in 2018.

The men’s lawyers so far have focused their cross-examination on E.M.’s behaviour before, during and after the alleged assault, from what she drank and how she danced at the bar to the “persona” or “alter ego” they suggest she adopted at the hotel.

Lawyers have raised questions about inconsistencies between E.M.’s police statement, civil lawsuit and testimony in court. They have also questioned her about misidentifying two men as potentially involved in the alleged assault, when they were not.

E.M. Has said she is remembering details as best she can and has maintained she did not consent to what happened in the hotel room.

You can read more about last week’s cross-examinations here.

Good morning. I’m a producer based in Toronto and I’ll be curating our live page today.

Our team of reporters is back at Superior Court in London, Ont., to bring you the latest developments from the sexual assault trial of five former world junior hockey players.

Stay with us as court gets back underway.

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