[jschick88]

An off-duty Buffalo police lieutenant served as Patrick Kane’s chauffeur on the night the hockey star was accused of raping a young woman in his Town of Hamburg home.

Lt. Thomas English told The Buffalo News that he drove Kane, the alleged rape victim, her female friend and a male friend of Kane’s to the National Hockey League player’s home on Old Lake Shore Road early on the morning of Aug. 2.

English said investigators from the Erie County District Attorney’s Office have interviewed him as they investigate the allegation against Kane.

English said he supports Kane, a longtime family friend who has employed him for the past five years. In photos that could be viewed on English’s Facebook page as recently as Thursday, he is seen with the Stanley Cup at a celebration with Kane in 2010.

Law enforcement sources told The News that Buffalo police are conducting an internal investigation to determine whether English was with Kane at any time he was supposed to be on duty the night of the alleged rape. Authorities said English was scheduled to work a half-shift that night at the police cell block and took a half-shift off on that night as personal leave time. English said he took the entire shift off with personal leave time.

Of English, a Buffalo police official said, “We are not aware of any allegations of improper activity by the off-duty officer in dealing with Kane or the alleged victim that night.”

This is what English said he told investigators:

He was not with Kane or at Kane’s house during the time the woman has alleged that Kane overpowered and raped her, leaving her with a scratched leg and bite marks on both her shoulders.

But English said he was with Kane and the alleged victim, and other friends, for a couple of hours early that morning at SkyBar, a downtown nightclub, before driving Kane and the three others to Hamburg. He said that after dropping them off, he left.

English said he was with Kane and Thomas Cowan, a Buffalo restaurateur, the entire time they were at SkyBar and witnessed no inappropriate behavior there or on the drive to Kane’s home.

“It was a mutual agreement to go hang out at the house,” English said.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-regi...-rape-20150815