Crown re-questions woman in sex assault trial of ex-world junior hockey players after marathon cross-exams

Answering questions from Cunningham, E.M. says that before being cross-examined, she had not seen the screen shots of her dancing with the men at Jack’s bar or touching their crotches.

She says she’d seen some of the videos, but others were completely new to her.

Cunningham asks E.M. about her answers to questions from Savard, about what she was relying on to say she wouldn’t have said the stuff that’s been suggested while in the room with the men (egging them on, for example) or performed acts willingly.

Court has heard E.M. is not relying on past practice or habit to know that she would not have said or done certain things.

Savard objects and the jury and E.M. are sent out while the lawyers argue.

WARNING: This post contains graphic details.

Crown lawyer Meaghan Cunningham asks E.M. about David Humphrey’s cross-examination. He is McLeod’s lawyer.

At one point, Humphrey said, “We have to enter a new character into this drama you’ve been telling us about,” in reference to E.M.’s boyfriend.

E.M. clarifies to Cunningham that she told the police right from the start she had a boyfriend. E.M. also clarifies the answers she gave to Dillon Dubé’s lawyer, Lisa Carnelos, about texts with her best friend in which she said she felt guilty.

E.M. says her guilt stemmed from cheating on her boyfriend by dancing and going home with McLeod.

In her cross-examination, Megan Savard, Carter Hart’s lawyer, asked E.M. about her memory gaps, particularly relating to the oral sex with three of the men and whether there were “negotiations” before the acts.

E.M. answers: “I know that it was already on the ground, on the bed sheet, with the men in front of me with their pants down. I can see that clearly and there was no conversation.”

After seven days of cross-examination, E.M. will now face Crown re-examination.

Witnesses are first examined “in-chief” and then cross-examined by the opposing side.

After that, there’s a re-examination, which is a chance for the initial side (in this case, the Crown) to get the witness to explain or clarify testimony that came up in cross-examination.

New areas and new evidence can’t be brought up in re-examination.

The Crown is only allowed to ask E.M. about anything that came up in cross-examination, to give her a chance to explain or qualify answers that may have been damaging during her testimony.

The two Crowns in this case are Meaghan Cunningham and Heather Donkers.

Cunningham is doing the re-examination.

About 50 supporters of E.M. were outside court again this morning, as they have been over several days of the trial.

As the accused men, their families and their lawyers walked into Superior Court, the supporters were holding signs and could be heard yelling “shame.” Some also appeared to be taunting the men about remarks heard during the proceedings.

For example, some supporters cited Cal Foote’s “party trick,” a reference to what his lawyer said about his ability to do the splits over E.M.’s face on the morning of June 19, 2018.

Today is likely the last day E.M. will testify. The Crown will ask her any questions stemming from the seven days of cross-examinations.

Good morning, readers. I’m a senior producer based in Toronto and I’ll be curating your live page experience.

Our team of reporters is back in the courthouse in London, Ont., to bring you the latest from another day of trial proceedings.

To get caught up on everything that unfolded yesterday, click here.

Stay tuned for more.