Police say suspect was nude inside Sault business
Police in Sault Ste. Marie say a 46-year-old suspect who was charged with sexual assault in connection with a May 28 incident at a Sault business faces new charges for public nudity.
'When officers were dispatched to the call involving the accused on May 28 … they found the accused nude and engaged in an indecent act inside the public business,' police said.
Indecent act
As a result, the suspect is now also charged with committing an indecent act in a public place and nudity.
The original charges included sexual assault, assault and obstructing police.
'An investigation revealed the accused had touched and grabbed a staff member multiple times while making sexual comments,' police said in a news release May 29.
'The victim and accused are not known to one another. No physical injuries were reported.'
The accused was held in custody pending a bail hearing, police said.
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The woman, meanwhile, testified she didn't remember saying such things, but that if she did, it was because she was intoxicated and had taken on the persona of a 'porn star' as a coping mechanism. About a week after the encounter, the players who were in the room formed a group chat to discuss how to respond to Hockey Canada investigators looking into the incident, court heard. When asked about the chat, Hart said he thought everyone in it was 'just agreeing to tell the truth,' though he agreed under cross-examination that he was asking for advice on what to say because he was worried about getting in trouble with the sports organization. The Crown alleges the men in the chat collectively built a narrative about that night, including that the complainant was 'begging for sex,' but prosecutors faced pushback from Carroccia during submissions on the issue. The judge said there was another competing inference available: that the men were repeating what they believed happened. The trial was 'extremely messy,' both in terms of procedure and evidence, said Gotell, the University of Alberta professor. 'The jury had to be dismissed once, and then it was dismissed twice, and then moved to a judge-alone trial as a result of a defence application,' she said. 'All of this messiness could potentially create opportunities for appeal.' The trial was forced to restart days after it began when a juror and a defence lawyer had a brief interaction during the lunch break. A new jury was selected, then dismissed weeks later after one of them told the judge some panel members felt Formenton's lawyers were mocking them. In both cases, Carroccia found the incidents raised concerns that the jury could harbour negative views of the defence. The trial continued without a jury to avoid rebooting a second time. Prosecutors had opposed both mistrial applications, and on the second occasion, they argued that switching to a judge alone after the Crown had presented most of its evidence could prejudice its case. Gotell said while the evidence in most sexual assault cases is messy, what makes this one different is the number of eyewitnesses. Typically, the alleged offences happen in private with only two people present, though there may also be forensic evidence such as rape kits, she said. In this case, however, there were many people in the room over the course of the night, she said. 'That's an awful lot of people who could potentially, and again over seven years, could potentially say very different things, right?' she said. 'I think that that's what makes this messy.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2025. Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
