By far the most serious incident, of course, was the one that triggered a rape investigation underway in Hamburg, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo where Patrick Kane makes his off-season home. That is where a late-night rape allegedly occurred, after a woman and a friend had been invited back to the Chicago Blackhawks player’s home for a late-night party. The accuser says she went into a room, that Kane followed and sexually assaulted her and that, according to unnamed sources, bites were involved in the assault.
Kane has been under investigation for two weeks without charges being filed but the investigation has already had some consequences, including EA Sports banishing the Blackhawks star from its cover. (Once it was Jonathan Toews and Kane together, now it’s Toews alone.)
As usual, the sports world has focused, not on the victim, but on the impact the case would have on Kane and the Blackhawks should charges be filed. Much fuss has been made over the poor Blackhawks, who lost a bundle of talent after their Stanley Cup win and now might have to do without one of their two best players.
Very little fuss has been made over the victim, who if Kane is charged will face the triple whammy: the alleged rape, public hysteria from outraged fans who don’t believe their heroes should be charged no matter what they do — and last and probably worst, a phalanx of expensive legal talent lining up to trash her reputation in court.
Kane has already retained high-profile lawyer Paul Cambria to represent him, a mere taste of things to come should charges be filed.
Other than the initial reports, the only thing that has come to light so far was that Kane’s driver that night was an off-duty cop who saw nothing inappropriate between Kane and the woman in question. But since the driver wasn’t in the house at the time of the alleged attack, that’s irrelevant.
What is not irrelevant is the way the Blackhawks and the NHL react. There are two possible templates involving NHL stars and domestic violence: in the first, the Colorado Avalanche used the “innocent-until-proven-guilty” dodge to stand behind Semyon Varlamov.
By the time the Los Angeles Kings’ Slava Voynov was charged, the social landscape had changed radically due to a single punch thrown by former Baltimore Ravens running-back Ray Rice. That punch, thrown to the jaw of Rice’s spouse, Janay Palmer, might never have caused much of a stir had a video of the incident not emerged. There it was, in grainy black-and-white: the abuse of a woman by a wealthy, entitled athlete, writ large. The wave of public outrage put all sports leagues, the NHL included, under scrutiny.
The NHL took the proper action and suspended Voynov and the Kings were later fined $100,000 for allowing the defenceman to attend a practice. Last month, Voynov pleaded no contest to the charges that he choked, kicked and punched his wife and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years’ probation.
Investigators in New York State can take their time examining the evidence against Kane but the NHL and Blackhawks, if they want to stay ahead of the curve, cannot. Given the gravity of the potential charges against him, Kane should already have been suspended until this is resolved.
The principal that a suspect in a criminal case is innocent until proven guilty does not apply here. Under section 18-A.5 of the CAB, “the league may suspend the player pending the league’s formal review and disposition of the matter where the failure to suspend the player during this period would create a substantial risk of material harm to the legitimate interests and/or reputation of the league.”
That risk, in this instance, is huge. If charges are filed against Kane, the case will dwarf anything that has come before in the NHL. The league and the Blackhawks have been lucky that all this is going on during cottage season, when the world is paying little attention to events in Hamburg.
All that is about to change, no matter what local officials decide to do. At best, Kane’s reputation is permanently tainted, the myth that he had grown up since his previous brushes with the law now in tatters. At worst, the NHL will have the man who may be its biggest American star in the dock facing a rape charge.
At the very least, the NHL needs to send the right signal by suspending Kane until this is resolved, one way or another. It’s pretty clear the Blackhawks aren’t going to act unless the NHL forces their hand — and the time to act is now.
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