Team moves to combine lawsuits
The Blackhawks hope to consolidate the two negligence lawsuits related to former video coach Bradley Aldrich’s alleged sexual assaults into one lawsuit, according to a court motion filed Tuesday.
The Hawks proposed consolidating the lawsuit filed by a former Michigan high school hockey player (identified as “John Doe 2”), whom Aldrich assaulted in 2013, with the lawsuit filed by a former Hawks player (“John Doe 1”), whom Aldrich allegedly assaulted in 2010.
Doing so makes sense because “the lawsuits include similar allegations, involve the same defendant, arise from the same underlying facts relating to [the] defendant, and, if allowed to proceed separately, could lead to inefficiency, inconsistent rulings and, potentially, inconsistent judgments,” Hawks lawyers wrote.
Both sides have battled through a lengthy string of motions, amendments and responses ever since the two lawsuits were filed in May and June. The Doe 2 case already has changed assigned judges once; the Doe 1 case is assigned to a different judge.
The most recent responses by plaintiffs’ lawyer Susan Loggans, filed Oct. 1, presented new claims that Doe 1 suffered anxiety, depression, severe sleep and anger problems, sexual dysfunction and marital problems resulting in divorce as results of Aldrich’s assault.
But Loggans also filed a new motion Friday. In it, she requested she be allowed to promptly depose James Gary, a former Hawks skills coach who allegedly convinced Doe 1 that the assault was his own fault, because the “circumstances of [Gary’s] availability have changed.”
The Hawks still have pending motions to dismiss in both lawsuits that have prevented them from progressing to the discovery stage.
Chalupa waived
The Hawks put minor-league forward Matej Chalupa on unconditional waivers for the purposes of contract termination. Chalupa, 23, signed with the Hawks in May 2020 as a European free agent after breaking out in the Czech league. But he never caught on in North America, posting seven points in 27 AHL games last season.