Report: Chicago Blackhawks attempted to dismiss 2nd “John Doe” lawsuit!

As if the damage that the Chicago Blackhawks organization inflicted upon Kyle Beach by refusing to intervene after he was sexually assaulted by former video coach Brad Aldrich during the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, they sunk even lower in 2021 by attempting to dismiss the lawsuit that he filed against them.

And now, they're facing more legal challenges, as a second John Doe emerged and filed a lawsuit against the Blackhawks in November of 2023; the Blackhawks have been denied their recent motion to have the negligence lawsuit dismissed. This player, like Kyle Beach, alleges that he was sexually assaulted by Aldrich during the 2009-10 regular season and postseason and that the Blackhawks failed to protect him.

According to court documents obtained by TSN, Judge Thomas Cushing dismissed the Chicago notion on March 13; the second "John Doe" filed his lawsuit nearly two years after Kyle Beach settled his own litigation. 

“Our law firm filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team for allowing and perpetuating this conduct and placing winning ahead of the health and welfare of their players,” Antonio Romanucci, managing partner of Chicago law firm Romanucci & Blandinsaid at the time of the lawsuit late last year.

“This case is about institutional negligence at its worst, where the culture of ‘win at all cost’ allowed a predator coach to abuse players at a time when the coach knew he could act with impunity because the team was on a winning roll. The team conceded the abuses by Brad Aldrich but not until nearly a decade after it all happened...”

As you may remember, Beach, a former 11th overall pick of the Blackhawks in 2008, alleges that the team’s former video coach Brad Aldrich sexually assaulted him during the 2010 season. Beach said that the abuse he suffered was an open secret in the locker room, and that the team's veteran players (including Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, Brent Seabrook, and others) knew and did nothing. Furthermore Beach contends that he notified then Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman and head coach Joel Quenneville of the alleged abuse and neither took action. Bowman resigned his position as GM and Quenneville, who was with the Florida Panthers organization most recently, was effectively forced to resign as a result of these findings.

The NHL fined the Blackhawks $2 million (less than they fined the New Jersey Devils for going against the salary cap with the Ilya Kovalchuk contract), and didn't punish them any further with the loss of draft picks; fans everywhere were infuriated after the Blackhawks won the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery (in the same year that former franchise pillars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews departed) and selected Connor Bedard with the 1st overall pick. 

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