3 Ex-Ridley High ice hockey players go on trial in brawl
NORRISTOWN >> Three former Ridley High ice hockey players have placed their fates in the hands of a jury on charges they assaulted players from Central Bucks West during a playoff game at a Hatfield ice rink back in 2017.
“They had an agreement that they would do these things to these players. In this case, the players of CB West were injured to certain degrees,” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney John N. Gradel argued to a jury as the joint trial for Brock Anderson, Jake Tyler Cross and Ryan Anthony Gricco got under way on Tuesday.
“This is not about hockey. This has nothing to do with hockey. These players from CB West did not want to fight,” added Gradel, who was assisted by Prosecutor Scott Frame.
Anderson, 19, of the 500 block of Ridley Circle, Morton; Cross, 20, of the 900 block of Greenhouse Lane, Secane; and Gricco, 19, of the 1500 block of Blackrock Road, Swarthmore, each face charges of simple assault, conspiracy to commit simple assault and harassment in connection with the March 9, 2017, incident at Hatfield Ice located on County Line Road in Hatfield.
The defense denies the charges, saying fighting is simply part of the sport.
The trial before Judge Richard P. Haaz is expected to last about four days.
Gradel alleged the defendants were part of a coordinated on-ice assault.
However, defense lawyers suggested during their opening remarks to the jury that fighting is a natural part of hockey and that the CB West players also were aggressive during the highly emotional elimination playoff game.
“Well, it has everything to do with hockey. This is a hockey game. It’s not a soccer game. It’s not volleyball. It’s hockey. It’s a contact sport. It’s emotional. It’s a culture. Are we now going to criminalize this behavior?” defense lawyer Mark Phillip Much, who represents Anderson, argued to the jury. “It’s foreseeable that fights occur in hockey.”
Defense lawyer Michael J. Malloy, who represents Gricco, and defense lawyer Lindsay McDonald, who represents Cross, urged jurors to carefully watch videotape footage of the fights, suggesting they will find reasonable doubt and hesitate to convict the men. The lawyers stressed the Ridley players did not strike the CB West players with hockey sticks or kick them with skates, nor did they try to take masks off the players.
An investigation began about 10:19 p.m. when Hatfield police responded to the rink for a report of a large fight during the Eastern Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey Association Regional High School “Flyers Cup” Class 2A quarterfinal game between Ridley and CB West.
Prosecutors alleged the coordinated attack began late in the third period, with about seven minutes left to play, with Ridley losing 7-1 and facing elimination from the playoff tournament. Authorities alleged Cross, during a stoppage of play, said something to each of his teammates and at the drop of the puck, the Ridley players immediately and simultaneously attacked the CB West players, punching them in the head and face, even when CB West players were forced down on the ice.
Joseph Anton testified he was playing center for CB West when a Ridley player he identified as Anderson attacked him and repeatedly struck him in the head and neck area and beat him down onto the ice.
“I was trying to get him off me,” Anton testified, adding that during the assault his throat felt like it was “on fire” and that he had difficulty breathing. “He just continued to punch me in the same area even while I was down.”
In court papers filed by Hatfield Detective Richard F. Hoffner, authorities alleged Anderson had to be restrained by a referee.
Under cross examination by Much, Anton conceded that a day after the incident he told detectives he wasn’t seriously injured and was feeling the effects of a cold. But he added he still had difficulty breathing during the alleged assault.
Onetime CB West player Brandon Savona testified Cross skated to where he was standing on the ice motionless and immediately attacked him, punching him in the head about 10 times including after he fell to the ice.
“I was seeing stars. I was dazed and confused. My ears started ringing. It was definitely a helpless feeling,” Savona testified.
Savona testified he did not attempt to fight back.
“My fear was if I were to do that I would be suspended from the next game, our semifinal game. I didn’t want to miss that,” Savona testified.
Testimony revealed Savona sought medical treatment later that evening and was diagnosed as having suffered a concussion and he did miss playing during the team’s semifinal appearance.
At the time of the arrests, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele characterized the game as one that went “from healthy competition to violence.”
“The Central Bucks West hockey players got jumped, just as if they were in an alley somewhere,” Steele alleged. “It’s true that checking an opponent and hits are a part of hockey, but a coordinated and planned physical attack with a goal of injuring the other team’s players is not hockey, it’s assault.”
The trial is expected to continue Wednesday.