NFL rookie Travis Hunter's father arrested in Florida for violating probation
A warrant was issued for Travis Hunter Sr. on July 10 after his probation officer said authorities briefly lost track of him the night of June 28 when he was 'too far away from his monitoring device to be accurately tracked,' according to court documents obtained by USA Today.
The 39-year-old dad, who is on probation related to drug and gun charges from an arrest in November 2023, was taken into custody in Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday, according to court records. He is being held at the West Palm Beach jail without bond.
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Hunter Sr. triggered a 'bracelet gone' alarm between 8:07 and 8:18 p.m. on June 28, according to the probation officer's report.
3 Travis Hunter is expected to be selected early in the NFL Draft.
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3 Travis Hunter, Sr. with Travis' grandmother outside her home in Florida.
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3 Travis Hunter starred at Colorado.
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When contacted by the monitoring center, Hunter Sr. said he was just in his bedroom while the device was in his living room, the docs show. Three days later, he claimed he had misplaced it during the time it went off and was looking for it, USA Today reported.
The probation officer tested the device on July 4 and determined it was working properly. Hunter Sr. told the officer he was 'moving too fast and forgot it,' court documents showed.
A judge ruled that he violated the conditions of his probation for failing to submit to electronic monitoring.
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Hunter Sr. was initially arrested in 2023 at a traffic stop in Palm Beach County after police discovered the gun and drugs in his car. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 3 years on probation, including one year of house arrest.
He was unable to attend his son's Heisman Trophy-winning presentation in December in New York, but was granted an exception to attend this year's NFL draft in Green Bay, where his son, a two-way University of Colorado star, was selected second overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
'Terrific guy': The Trump-Epstein party boy friendship lasted a decade, ended badly
Long before the little black book, before the conspiracy theories, before one died by suicide in jail and one ascended to the White House, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were poster boys for '90s New York City excess. Parties. Models. Mansions. They danced with cheerleaders at Mar-a-Lago and dined with celebrities in Manhattan. Trump flew on Epstein's private jet between New York – where they lived blocks apart − and Florida, where they owned mansions 2 miles from each other. Their lives intersected over decades, with Epstein once claiming he introduced Trump to his third wife, Melania. 'Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were both horny rich guys with an eye for young models,' Michael Gross, author of the 1995 book 'Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women,' told USA TODAY. Now, their friendship plagues Trump's second term in the White House. More: Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? DOJ turns to Jeffrey Epstein's ex-partner. Trump hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing in the Epstein case, but he is among the dozens of politicians, actors and tech leaders connected to the billionaire who was first convicted in 2008 of paying teenage girls for sex acts and accused in 2019 in a sprawling sex trafficking scheme. Epstein died before he went to trial on those charges. Though dead nearly six years, Epstein now dominates Trump's agenda amid a tornado of outrage since the White House and Department of Justice tried to close the book on the case after the president and his closest allies – including the attorney general and the FBI director – spent years claiming Democrats had suppressed evidence of an Epstein 'client list' and a wider child abuse conspiracy. More: Can Trump pardon Ghislaine Maxwell? When does Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator get out? "We already know almost everything there is to be known about the Epstein files. The story isn't Epstein anymore. It's Donald Trump talking about Epstein," says Mike Rothschild, author of "The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything. Trump's MAGA movement has rebelled after being promised lurid Epstein revelations by the very officials who now say there are none. On July 22, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, sent the House of Representatives on an early summer recess to prevent passage of a bipartisan measure forcing the DOJ to release its Epstein documents. "The GOP is so intent on not talking about Epstein and not releasing any details, it makes you wonder if there is something they don't want released," Rothschild said. "It starts driving you toward conspiracy theory." More: Trump's Epstein problem grows: Even his voters want more files released On July 22, Trump said the Epstein furor was 'sort of a witch hunt,' and railed against the media, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. One day later, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that he was named multiple times in the government's files on Epstein. But long before Epstein's conviction and questions about who might want his secrets buried, he and Trump were charter members of a decadent New York party scene. When Donald met Jeffrey Epstein and Trump met, it's believed, in 1990 when Epstein bought a mansion 2 miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and estate. Born seven years and a borough apart in New York, Epstein was from Brooklyn and Trump from Queens. They partied hard, but neither drank alcohol. Trump was living loud in 1990. He had divorced his first wife, Ivana, with whom he had three children, and was dating model Marla Maples. Epstein was rich and single, a former high school teacher running his own financial advisory firm. Trump was known for hosting parties at the Plaza Hotel, which he owned at the time, that attracted rich men and younger women. 'If they were checking IDs, it was to make sure the girls were young enough,' Gross, who's known Trump for more than 40 years, said jokingly. It wasn't enough to simply invite models to events: Trump started his own agency and Epstein invested in one. Trump launched Trump Models in 1999. It represented Melania Knauss, who would later become his wife, and signed on teen models such as Alexia Palmer. More: Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down House early amid Jeffrey Epstein drama Epstein would later invest in Jean-Luc Brunel's MC2 modeling agency. Brunel had been banned from his former agency in Europe after accusations of abuse. Trump and Epstein were 'representative of a type that has nibbled at the edges of the modeling business. If you're in the market for women as sex toys, a higher echelon of that is models. They are, by definition, beautiful women. They also are beautiful young women,' Gross says. 'You can go from there.' Brunel was suspected of transporting girls or young women for Epstein. In 2022, less than three years after Epstein's death, he died by suicide in a French jail. 'Rhythm is a Dancer' In July 2019, after Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, Trump said in the Oval Office that he was 'not a fan' of the financier. But it wasn't always that way. In 1992, Epstein joined Trump for a party at Mar-a-Lago, where a video shows Trump chatting and laughing next to Epstein. Trump sways to the Eurodance hit 'Rhythm is a Dancer,' as the pair hang with cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. Later that year, Trump and Epstein would again meet at Mar-a-Lago, at an invite-only event for a 'calendar girl' competition organized by George Houraney, according to the New York Times. The Florida businessman had created the event at Trump's request. "At the very first party,' Houraney told the Times, 'I said, 'Who's coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.' It was him and Epstein.' Epstein moved into one of the largest private homes in Manhattan in 1995, a townhouse previously owned by billionaire Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner. Trump was 1 mile away in a penthouse at Trump Tower. 'Terrific guy,' he famously told New York magazine in 2002 for a story that called Epstein an "international money man of mystery." 'He's a lot of fun to be with," Trump said. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." 'I sort of get away with things' When his modeling agency never quite took off, Trump turned to beauty pageants. In October 1996, he bought Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA. In a 2005 interview with Howard Stern, Trump bragged about his access to contestants, some of whom were as young as 14. 'I'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else and no men are anywhere …. I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it,' Trump told Stern. 'The girls are standing there with no clothes on, and so I sort of get away with things like that,' he said. Tasha Dixon was competing in the Miss USA pageant in 2001 in Gary, Indiana, when she, a former Miss Arizona, met Trump. He walked in, she told CNN, as contestants changed into their bikinis. The theme that year was empowering women. "Who do you complain to? He owns the pageant,' she said. As Trump approached his third marriage − and alleged affairs, which he denies, with an adult film star and a former Playboy playmate − court testimony shows his friend Epstein was abusing teenagers. Sometime in the summer of 2020, a 16-year-old Mar-a-Lago locker room assistant was recruited into Epstein's circle by Epstein's procuror and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. She would later accuse Epstein of years of sexual abuse. Virginia Giuffre died by suicide last April at the age of 41. A lenient plea deal Epstein received from Florida state and federal prosecutors in 2008 included restitution to 36 victims. A 2019 federal indictment cited "dozens" of victims. The breakup In 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported, Epstein received a leather-bound volume of tributes from friends for his 50th birthday. A lewd message in the book was attributed to Trump, the paper reported. It ended: 'Happy Birthday − and may every day be another wonderful secret.' (Trump denied writing the letter and has sued the Wall Street Journal over the report.) A year after Epstein turned 50, Trump, in his book "Trump ‒ How to Get Rich," described a call from a person he called "the mysterious Jeffrey." "As mysterious as Jeffrey is, he's one of the few people I know who can get by on just a first name," Trump wrote. "My staff never asks for a last name in his case, which in a way puts him up there with Elvis." But that year, Epstein and Trump fell out over an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach called Maison de l'Amitie − the House of Friendship. Trump outbid Epstein for the estate, paying $41 million, and in 2008 flipped it for $95 million to a Russian billionaire. Other reports say they broke after Ghislaine Maxwell solicited the daughter of a Mar-a-Lago member and her father complained to Trump. 'The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep," said White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. Maxwell is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking a minor to Epstein for sexual abuse. After her 2020 arrest, when asked if Maxwell might cut a deal with prosecutors, Trump said: "I just wish her well." On July 24, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as a criminal defense lawyer for Trump, flew to Florida to meet Maxwell at a women's prison. 'Boring stuff' Trump and Epstein appear to have not spoken for 15 years before his death. As Epstein continues to dog his presidency, Trump says he's bewildered by the attention. 'I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody," he told reporters. "It's pretty boring stuff.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Is Trump in the Epstein files? Before Bondi's reported alert, here is where he appeared
Fallout over Jeffrey Epstein has been propelled by reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that he was mentioned in the criminal case files. The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported on July 23 that anonymous sources said Bondi told Trump his name appeared multiple times, along with other figures, in the government's files on the late financier indicted on sex trafficking charges. (Being named in the files does not mean he engaged in criminal activity, and a White House official denied wrongdoing, USA TODAY previously reported.) Bondi's Justice Department on July 7 released a memo saying no further disclosure of the documents was needed after teasing a "truckload" of Epstein files in March. In a rare moment of discord among Trump's supporters, many Republicans have pushed for more transparency around the files. 'The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep," White House Communications Director Steven Cheung previously said. "This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about." But criminal investigations into Epstein spanned nearly 15 years, and Trump had already appeared in some evidence that has been made public. Here is what to know: See the list: Which MAGA supporters is Trump calling 'weaklings' over Epstein files? Is Donald Trump's name in the Epstein files? Trump had already appeared in legal documents concerning Epstein's crimes, but never in a way that implicates him. In the 1990s, Trump rode on aircraft owned by Epstein, according to flight logs released in two lawsuits. But that was 30-plus years ago. In Palm Beach County state attorney documents, an image of a message pad communication seized in a Palm Beach police search appeared, but there is nothing more than Trump's name and a phone number. Florida court has rejected the administration's call to unseal documents A federal judge in Florida on July 23 denied the Department of Justice's move to unseal grand jury transcripts from a federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein as part of the first criminal case against him. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, formerly a circuit court judge in Palm Beach County, said in a memo on July 23 that her "hands were tied" and that the DOJ hadn't shown sufficient evidence to release transcripts related to a federal investigation of Epstein in the 2000s. The material sought in Rosenberg's court involved a 2006-08 federal investigation of Epstein that never resulted in an indictment. Part of the infamous "deal of the century," in which Epstein pleaded guilty to two state-court, prostitution-related charges, said that if Epstein followed the agreement that the federal charges would be dropped. Two other requests for related grand jury testimony are still pending in a Manhattan federal court. When was Epstein caught and first charged? A police investigation into Epstein began in March 2005 after a woman from the Palm Beach area in Florida said her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been molested by a wealthy man. In July 2006, Epstein was indicted by a state grand jury on a felony charge of soliciting prostitution, which did not address the 14-year-old victim's age. He was arrested and spent one night in Palm Beach County jail, released the next day on $3,000 bond. Epstein signed a non-prosecution agreement that was called the "deal of the century." He pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, where he was allowed work leave privileges six days a week/12 hours a day over the 13 months he served. When he was released from jail, he spent a year on house arrest but was allowed to travel anywhere so long as he returned in 24 hours. What was Epstein convicted of? Epstein never sat for trial, but he pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution in 2008 in Florida. He was also a registered sex offender. He died in 2019, before he could be tried for sex trafficking charges in New York. He was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell, and the medical examiner ruled it a suicide. Trump himself has cast doubt on Epstein's death. Contributing: Joey Garrison and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@ Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Trump in the Epstein files? What we knew before Bondi told Trump Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
7 hours ago
- New York Times
Judge addresses consent videos recorded by Michael McLeod
All five members of Canada's 2018 World Junior hockey team have been found not guilty of sexual assault Cole Burston / Getty Images LONDON, Ont. — Five members of Canada's 2018 World Junior hockey team were found not guilty of sexual assault on Thursday, ending a months-long trial that has garnered national attention since it began in April. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote were acquitted of all charges by Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia on Thursday. All five players had been charged with sexual assault in connection to an alleged incident in June 2018 in which a woman known publicly as E.M. — her identity is protected by a publication ban — said she was sexually assaulted over the span of several hours in a London, Ont., hotel room. The players were in town for a Hockey Canada event celebrating their victory at the World Junior championships earlier that year. McLeod had also been charged with being a party to the offense. In her decision, Justice Maria Carroccia said the Crown had not proven its case, and that she did not find the evidence of the complainant 'credible or reliable.' 'Having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence of E.M. and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me,' Carroccia said earlier in the day. GO FURTHER All 5 players found not guilty in Hockey Canada sexual assault trial LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia also spent some time recapping what was said in the consent videos recorded by Michael McLeod that night in London. In the first video, E.M. says, "I'm OK with this." In a second, she said, "It was all consensual." Carroccia says E.M. did "not display any signs of intoxication' in the videos and had 'no difficulty speaking." E.M. alleged in court that, although she said it was all consensual, that is not how she felt at the time. GO FURTHER Hockey Canada sexual assault trial is over; decision coming July 24 LONDON, Ont. — Justice Carroccia is continuing to go over evidence and highlighting inconsistencies in E.M.'s statements. The judge says E.M. initially identified Sam Steel as one of the players she had performed oral sex on in the hotel room in statements to police in 2018. Carter Hart was later identified by someone else as that person. This was previously reported as part of Megan Savard's cross-examination of E.M. in May. LONDON, Ont. — Consent has been a major focal point in the eight-week trial. The Crown argued that E.M. did not voluntarily consent to any of the specific sexual activity and that once men began arriving in the room, E.M. found herself in a 'highly stressful' and 'unpredictable' situation that caused her to feel fear. As part of her reasons — that are still being read in the courtroom at this time— Carroccia said, "in this case, I have found actual consent not vitiated by fear." GO FURTHER Hockey Canada sexual assault trial is over; decision coming July 24 LONDON, Ont. — Richard McLeod, Michael McLeod's father who has sat through the entire trial, leaned forward and put his face in his hands in apparent relief as Carroccia said she did not find E.M. "credible or reliable." LONDON, Ont. — In reading her decision, Justice Maria Carroccia said, "having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence of E.M. and then considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me." She is now going over all the evidence of the case and has not made an official verdict at this time. LONDON, Ont. — Carroccia just announced that she does not find E.M.'s account reliable and will now explain her reasoning. "I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus" on any of the charges, Carroccia said. LONDON, Ont. — Justice Maria Carroccia, after some minor housekeeping, began recounting the case at 10:24 ET, laying out the events of the night leading up to the events in question and summarizing the cases of the prosecution and players alike. Peter Power / Getty Images LONDON, Ont. — Proceedings are set to begin from the 14th floor of the Ontario Superior Court house. Reporters and members of the public alike, beyond a small number in the primary courtroom, are scattered throughout the building and will monitor the sentencing via video feed from "overflow" rooms. Each of the five defendants, along with their representatives, is seated at their own table in the courtroom. Michael McLeod, the only player charged on two counts, is seated closest to Justice Maria Carroccia. GO FURTHER Hockey Canada sexual assault trial is over; decision coming July 24 By Katie Strang and Dan Robson All five defense teams were given the chance to put forth final reply submissions and focused on a variety of aspects of the case. David Humphrey, attorney for McLeod, argued that the Crown was manipulating evidence, distorting the timeline and jettisoning arguments that were inconsistent with their arguments. Riaz Sayani, Hart's attorney, largely focused on what he argued was the Crown's misapplications of law, including invoking trauma principles for circular reasoning and 'bootstrapping' information to augment their case. Hilary Dudding, attorney for Formenton, argued that myth-based stereotypes should not be applied to defense arguments, nor for Crown positions. She cautioned the judge against accepting false binary propositions and to instead allow for the possibility that a woman could be enthusiastic and consenting within the environment the defense describes without it being characterized as 'bizarre' or 'odd.' Lisa Carnelos, attorney for Dubé, addressed the contact her client had with E.M.'s buttocks, calling it 'playful' and arguing that the 'Crown has not disproved that she was consenting.' 'It was playful, possibly foreplay,' Carnelos said. 'And in no way looked to be harmful or with the intention to be abusive.' Julianna Greenspan, who represents Foote, took aim at the Crown, criticizing what she said was an earlier suggestion that further evidence exists that was not permitted to be considered in court. Without a jury, those documents are available to the public. 'That was a factually wrong and unfair comment to make,' Greenspan said. She also took issue with a slide shown earlier in the day that indicated there was 'no evidence from Callan Foote.' Had this still been a jury trial, Greenspan said, she would have called for mistrial, even at this late stage — calling the slide 'illegal.' 'It runs contrary to the Canada Evidence Act, which states failure of the accused to testify shall not be made the subject of comment by counsel for the prosecution,' Greenspan said. She further suggested that the slide was purposefully included to influence the media. 'Everyone in this courtroom knows the attention in this case has garnered from the media and public,' Greenspan said. 'The Crown, I submit, has throughout this trial been preoccupied with litigating the public opinion through the media. This is an upsetting final example on behalf of my client.' The Canadian Press via AP By Katie Strang and Dan Robson In closing submissions, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham took issue with the 'consent videos' filmed by McLeod as exculpatory evidence, arguing the verbal prompts by McLeod in the second video — beginning the video with 'Say it,' and subsequently interjecting 'What else? — illustrated that they were neither evidence of E.M. providing consent nor evidence of McLeod taking a reasonable step to ascertain consent. Cunningham argued that the videos instead support E.M.'s testimony — that McLeod was 'hounding' her to say the activity was consensual, which E.M. said was not a reflection of how she felt at the time. 'She's simply agreeing with him when he's making it clear what he wants her to say,' Cunningham said. Crown attorney Heather Donkers presented Justice Maria Carroccia with a path to conviction for each defendant. The Crown highlighted credibility and reliability issues with the accused and asked the court to find that E.M. did not have a choice so she could not have provided consent. Additionally, Donkers detailed how none of the defendants took reasonable steps to ascertain consent, which the Crown argued demonstrated their 'recklessness' or 'willful blindness' on the consent issue. The Crown incorporated case law demonstrating the need for 'greater care' exercised with those 'reasonable steps' in situations such as when the accused is unfamiliar with the complainant or the complainant is intoxicated or vulnerable. The Crown argued that all these caveats applied to the circumstances within Room 209 that night. (Dubé also admitted in his 2018 police interview that he was, at one point, holding a golf club, which represents an additional factor to the 'greater care' requirement with respect to his specific case, Donkers said.) Cunningham concluded the Crown's case by referring to a statement E.M. made near the end of her seven-day cross-examination, in which she described being objectified and laughed at. 'Literally, any one of those men could have stood up and said, this isn't right. And no one did. No one noticed that,' E.M. said, while being cross-examined by Julianna Greenspan. 'No one thought like that. They didn't want to think about if I was actually OK or if I was actually consenting.' By Katie Strang and Dan Robson With the Hockey Canada trial over and a decision from Justice Maria Carroccia as to whether guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be announced today, this has become a touchstone for perspectives on sexual assault, misogyny and consent. The 'she said, they said' nature of the evidence has also dragged the insular and protective culture of hockey into an uncomfortable spotlight. Read more below about why judgment can be rendered regardless of the outcome. GO FURTHER Legal decision for the 'Hockey Canada 5' won't come for weeks, but judgment can be rendered By Katie Strang and Dan Robson The prosecution described Michael McLeod as the 'architect' of the 'group sexual activity' at the center of the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial and said he told 'outright lies' to portray the complainant as the aggressor in the sexual interactions of the night and advance a 'false narrative.' Attorney Meaghan Cunningham provided Justice Maria Carroccia an outline of the Crown's argument, showing a power point in a closing submission last month that she said will demonstrate E.M. did not voluntarily agree to the charged sexual acts of the night. Cunningham began that presentation by telling Carroccia that she intended to prove E.M. did not want to engage in group sex and that McLeod repeatedly lied about his role as the orchestrator of the alleged incident. McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote are all charged with sexual assault. McLeod is also facing a second charge for 'being a party to the offense' for what the Crown has asserted was his role 'assisting and encouraging his teammates to engage sexually' with E.M. All five players pleaded not guilty. Read more below. GO FURTHER Prosecutor calls Michael McLeod the architect of Hockey Canada sexual assault Cole Burston / Getty Images LONDON, Ont. — Carter Hart was the final defendant to arrive at the courthouse. Hart, formerly a goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers, was dropped off in front of the building, climbing out of a black Chevrolet Suburban. Hart, like his fellow defendants, was greeted with loud boos and chants. LONDON, ONT. — Michael McLeod, the only player facing two charges, has arrived. He approached the building from a side opposite a growing, vocal group of protestors. Three men supporting the players, two of whom held signs, waited nearby at the courthouse steps. They stood across from a much larger, much louder group of people — roughly 100 — supporting E.M. and sexual assault survivors. Cal Foote arrived shortly after McLeod. By Katie Strang and Dan Robson After a jury was discharged in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, a publication ban on previously unreported details from the trial was lifted. The highly publicized trial has been marred by a series of unexpected incidents — including an attempt by a member of the public to locate the Crown's central witness, concerns that smart glasses were being used to illegally record the proceedings, and aggressive interactions with the media. More on what the jury didn't hear at the link below. GO FURTHER What the jury didn't hear in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial Cole Burston / Getty Images LONDON, Ont. — Alex Formenton was the first defendant to arrive at the courthouse, along with his defense team, led by Daniel Brown. More than 50 protestors supporting E.M. and sexual assault survivors chanted and booed Formenton and his party as they approached the building. First, and most importantly, the switch to a judge-alone trial meant Justice Carroccia will render the verdicts on each of the charges rather than providing instruction and guidance on the law to a group of jurors. According to criminal defense lawyer Nikolas Lust, judges interpret the law differently. Carroccia, for example, is a former criminal defense attorney who earned judicial appointment in June 2020. Lust asserted that does not necessarily mean the five players will be acquitted. But, he said, 'defense lawyers who become judges are just so much more aware of the law and the nature of sexual assaults than your average person.' One fairly consistent trait among judges, however, is that they are 'not as swayed by narrative and emotions in the same way that a jury is,' Lust said. Another significant difference is that judges will often provide a written opinion that details their reasons for arriving at a given decision. That differs from a jury trial, where jurors come back from deliberations and provide a verdict, but no explanation. 'Whatever the result is, people are going to know how it is that Her Honor got there,' Lust explained. Sean Gentille / The Athletic LONDON, Ont. — Supporters of E.M and sexual assault survivors, holding signs and printed sheets of protest chants, have arrived outside the courthouse. Protests aren't allowed in court. The protesters plan to reconvene once the verdicts are rendered and court is dismissed, and the expectation is that other protesters in support of the players will arrive ahead of the trial as well. About 15 minutes before the courthouse doors were to open at 8:30 a.m. ET, the line for admission — comprised of both media and the public — was about 60 people deep. A juror handed Justice Carroccia a note that read: 'Multiple jury members feel we are being judged and made fun of by (defense) lawyers Daniel Brown and Hilary Dudding. Every day when we enter the courtroom they observe us, whisper to each other and turn to each other and laugh as if they are discussing our appearance. This is unprofessional and unacceptable.' Brown and Dudding categorically denied the jurors' accusations. In arguing for the trial to continue in front of Carroccia alone, Megan Savard — attorney for Carter Hart — said the note was a worse form of jury tainting than the initial incident that led to a mistrial on April 25. In the legal arguments, which were previously covered by a publication ban, Brown and other defense attorneys referenced a 'chilling effect' that the allegations would have in court. Brown said that his ability to make submissions, or even look at the jurors, would be impacted by the situation, impeding his and his counterparts' abilities to represent their clients fairly. Brown also told the judge that he believed that jurors might have been influenced by the dozens of protestors who have often gathered outside the courthouse and commentary on social media. (The court had heard previously that Carroccia made arrangements for the jury to enter the courthouse through a separate, private entrance). Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an accused has the right to be heard by an 'independent and impartial tribunal.' But according to criminal defense lawyer Nikolas Lust, it's 'an absolute possibility' that a jury could be affected by outside influences, despite rules against reading or engaging with anything having to do with the case. 'The case is being talked about everywhere. It's on YouTube, it's on Twitter, it is on Facebook, it's on TikTok,' Lust said. 'Maybe (a juror) saw something online about people taking issue with (Brown's) line of questioning and they developed some conscious or unconscious dislike of him.' Carroccia told the court that, while she had not witnessed any inappropriate behavior by Brown or Dudding, it appeared to her that several members of the jury harbored negative feelings toward the defense. 'It is with reluctance that I have determined that the fairness of this trial has been compromised,' Carroccia said in her decision to discharge the jury to 'protect trial fairness.'
