Hockey Canada trial: NHLer Brett Howden breaks down during testimony

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There’s game pressure, and then there is courtroom pressure.

Vegas Golden Knights player Brett Howden has experienced both in a matter of days.

A week ago, Howden’s team was eliminated from the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs after a hard-fought series with the Edmonton Oilers. On Thursday, he was wiping tears from his eyes while testifying remotely from Nevada in a London courtroom.

He was asked to recall what he was thinking when he found out through a text message that Hockey Canada was investigating his 2018 world junior championship team for what happened in Michael McLeod’s London hotel room with a woman McLeod met at a nearby bar.

“I was very nervous when this was going on,” Howden said to questions from defence lawyer Lisa Carnelos, who represents Dillon Dube, 26, one among five teammates on trial for sexual assault.

“One of the hardest things I had to go through was explaining this to my family,” he said, particularly his father. Carnelos added he would have to tell his girlfriend, someone who “was very important to you.”

“She is; she’s my wife,” he said.

He lost his composure and started to cry. He confirmed he had just become a father for the second time.

“Congratulations,” Carnelos said. Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia asked if he needed a moment to compose himself.

“I’m okay,” he replied.

It was a dramatic moment during questioning about a series of text messages Howden exchanged with teammate Taylor Raddysh, now with the NHL’s Washington Capitals, on June 26, 2018, when Raddysh told him Hockey Canada was investigating what happened in Room 209 at the Delta Armouries hotel a week earlier.

The team had been in London for a gala and golf tournament to celebrate their gold medal win.

McLeod, 27; Dube, 26; Carter Hart, 26; Alex Formenton, 25; and Cal Foote, 26, have all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to a second sexual assault count for being a party to the offence.

Thursday’s emotional testimony from Howden was a continuation of the Crown’s legal application to allow the prosecution to cross-examine its own witness over inconsistencies, specifically between Howden’s trial evidence and past recollections recorded in the text messages to Raddysh.

Howden, who began his testimony earlier this week, was among the men who had dropped in to McLeod’s room after a group of teammates had closed down Jack’s Bar on Richmond Row. McLeod had already returned to the hotel with a then-20-year-old woman for consensual sex. She alleges that after sex with McLeod, she was sexually assaulted by multiple members of the hockey team.

The woman, now 27, and whose name is protected by court order, testified for more than a week, telling the court she was intoxicated and has significant memory lapses about what happened. She also said she had an out-of-body experience to cope with the situation and believed she had to comply with their sexual requests to protect herself.

But the defence has collectively presented an alternative scenario, pointing to the woman as the aggressor who asked McLeod to invite the team to the room for “a wild night,” and who initiated sexual activity, even taunting the men when they ignored her.

It became clear how much is riding on Carroccia’s decision, which is expected Friday morning, whether to allow the Crown to cross-examine Howden on the messages and effectively have them entered as evidence into the trial.

Hart’s defence lawyer, Megan Savard, suggested to Carroccia that if she dismisses the Crown’s “past recollection recorded application” that is part of a broader evidentiary application to cross-examine Howden on other perceived inconsistencies, the defence would be asking that the entirety of the Crown’s request be dismissed.

The text messages also appear to be critical for the Crown’s case against Dube, whose charge is based on him allegedly slapping the woman’s butt without her consent.

However, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham told Carroccia the prosecution would also be relying on both player Tyler Steenbergen’s testimony that he saw Dube slap the woman’s behind – not hard, but not soft – and the testimony from the woman who said multiple players hit her.

Based on Howden’s obvious nervousness and serious demeanor, both the Hockey Canada investigation and the criminal case have weighed heavily on him. At the time he wrote the texts to Raddysh, Howden was a 19-year-old prospect on the cusp of his NHL career and in New York at a development camp.

Cunningham asked Howden to review one section of the messages where Raddysh told him about the Hockey Canada investigation.

“Dude, I’m so happy I left when all the sh– went down,”  Howden wrote. “Duber (Dube) was smacking the girl’s ass so hard, it looked like it hurt so bad.”

Howden said he had no reason to lie when he wrote the message, but repeatedly said he has no memory of the text conversation when it was shown to him during the investigation.

“Do you believe you were being truthful in what you said in those messages to Mr. Raddysh?” Cunningham asked.

“Yeah, I believe I was being truthful,” Howden said.

Carnelos, however, went further. Howden agreed the text conversation was casual and not a formal statement. He also agreed it was likely the first time he was told Hockey Canada was investigating the situation.

Howden said the whole situation was “very stressful.” He said he remembered talking to Raddysh about the investigation, but not the text exchange and when he was shown the texts, they were “honestly a surprise to me.”

“It’s just hard to remember my thought process. It’s just hard to see them and even try to explain them,” Howden said.

Carnelos suggested it was just “banter with a buddy” and Howden’s comments might not be accurate.

“I’m sorry, I’m trying hard. It’s hard to remember why I sent this text,” Howden said. “I had no reason, I’m not saying I lied or anything. I just don’t remember what I was thinking when I sent those texts.

“I’m trying hard to think back in that time, but there’s a lot of things that are hard to remember because for so long, we’ve just been trying to move on and forget about it.”

Howden added: “Obviously I remember the gist of what happened that night, but . . . it’s hard for me to go back in that time and remember it.”

Carnelos suggested he was worried about his professional career, but Howden said that was not his main concern.

“I was more so worried about Hockey Canada and the standard and their code of conduct. I never thought it would come to what it has now. I was just worried about what Hockey Canada would think and the fact that there was even a girl there,” he said.

“I played with Hockey Canada growing up a lot, and that was the main thing I was worried about.”

The text message arguments were among 18 potential inconsistencies Cunningham flagged, saying they warrant cross-examination – most tied to Howden’s shaky memory on issues she argued were central to the Crown’s case but unhelpful to the defence.

But Carroccia dismissed the “feigned memory loss” application on Wednesday, deciding Howden was a sincere and truthful witness who was being genuine when he testified he didn’t have a present recollection about the events.

However, the judge agreed to allow the Crown to proceed on the remaining four inconsistencies on the list. One dealt with whether he watched the woman walk to the bathroom. Two inconsistencies involved conversation with Formenton before he went into the bathroom with the woman. At trial, Howden stated Formenton said something like: “Should I be doing this?”

In a previous statement, Howden recalled Formenton asking, “Will I get in trouble for this?” Cunningham argued this was a significant inconsistency.

Similarly, Cunningham argued there was an inconsistency in Howden’s response. At trial Howden couldn’t remember, but in 2018 he said: “I don’t know, like, if she wants to have sex with you, like, I guess it’s okay . . . I really don’t know” and “if she consented, you can if you want, but it’s, like, up to you.”

The final inconsistency was the alleged slap by Dube. Howden testified he couldn’t recall how he felt at the time. But in 2022 and similarly in 2023, he said “once seeing the smack, that was drawing the line for me to leave because I had felt uncomfortable to that point and once I (had) seen that, I just wanted to be out of there.”

The trial continues on Friday.

jsims@postmedia.com