[News] Gavin McKenna facing charges for assault UPD: felony charge withdrawn

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by cam_calderon

Insiderrr fotze

Not on most things but this one, yes.

[cam_calderon]

TMZ really asleep at the wheel, I can't believe the video isn't all over X.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Nah. I did. Some drunk scrawny nerd heckling where they were and followed them out and continued as they went home. One punch that caught him good and done. He gets it the whole time there. $700k comes with this stuff.

The police report disputes this account.

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Weitz

The police report disputes this account.

The police report was based on an interview in the hospital with the alleged victim and two of his friends. There is no indication they spoke to McKenna other than "you are under arrest." To me, it smells like a couple of gung-ho cops who just went and arrested the hotshot, soon-to-be millionaire, without even considering his side of the story. Whatever their motives, the police in the US have not done anything to earn the benefit of the doubt.

[NegativeSpace]

Originally Posted by Itse

Valid point, although the US also has a lot.of tradition for "boys will be boys" and "let's not ruin a young mans future", especially when it comes to young top athletes.

I'm any case, I don't see the court of public opinion really improving the situation.

The one thing about American criminal justice is that they have jury trials more often than our Canadian courts. So, the public perception is something that comes into play.

[InternationalVillager]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Only two GMs hold law degrees, so I don’t think a background in law is common and definitely not one that covers criminal law and immigration law. But that is (one of the probably hundreds of reasons) why teams have actual lawyers.

I agree that the likelihood he’ll be sentenced is extremely small, but I think you’re totally underestimating how that would impact his draft position and his development.

Even one year is potentially catastrophic. No hockey, no skating, no opportunity to train sufficiently, plus a nasty criminal record that would make all sorts of things difficult. That alone could drop him out of the first round if not out of the entire draft if the criminal record is going to be an issue.

5 years pts him firmly in DND territory. Nobody is wasting a pick on a player, regardless of how good they might be at the time, who (best case scenario) doesn’t even join your organization or play hockey before your rights to him run out. There’s no way to retain his rights, so there is no point in drafting him when he’ll just be able to sign with whoever after the fact.

IMO- this is more an immigration issue. How does he get a work visa to play in the US? What is the current status of his student visa? How does that all work?

I did have like 2 secs to ask an immigration lawyer re: this and the immediate advice was that it's highly unlikely he should leave the US at this time as he could be barred from re-entry as a result of the pending charge.

Originally Posted by ChatGPT

the legal and immigration teams will aggressively target a plea like:

Disorderly conduct
Simple assault (without “intent” language)
Harassment
Mischief
Summary offense

These pose minimal P-1 immigration risk.

If he pleads down to a misdemeanor:

✔️ Likely no impact on his ability to get a professional P-1 visa

✔️ NHL teams will still be able to draft + sign him

✔️ Visa will be issued unless the specific misdemeanor is a CIMT

✔️ Travel could be temporarily tricky until the case is fully closed

✔️ Once resolved, immigration impact is typically minimal to none

There you have it. ChatGPT has spoken.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Titan2

The police report was based on an interview in the hospital with the alleged victim and two of his friends. There is no indication they spoke to McKenna other than "you are under arrest." To me, it smells like a couple of gung-ho cops who just went and arrested the hotshot, soon-to-be millionaire, without even considering his side of the story. Whatever their motives, the police in the US have not done anything to earn the benefit of the doubt.

This isn't a broad defense of the police, but I don't think it matters what his side of the story is when it comes to arresting and filing charges. They do that based on the complaint and evidence that supports the fact an assault occurred, then it's up to the court to consider his side of the story and if he was provoked to a point that a reasonable person would use violence. It's not like McKenna can say, well he was insulting my family, and the police would say well alright, you're free to put him in the hospital.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by bluejays

Sounds like the drunk kid deserved it. But based on the description, he doesn't seem like a true threat, and could've been avoided. I'm sure the full video will be out in due time but it ultimately sounds like something that will just go away over time. Police I'm sure charge first and leave the nuances for the courts.

Everything around the incident is speculation, and yeah the police charge based on what they know at the time so some things will go away.


If this was merely a verbal confrontation of some moron heckling Mckenna and his mom, and McKenna cracked him twice. Some of these charges are going to absolutely stick, heckling is not a justification for causing serious bodily harm. (I would expect his lawyer would push him to make a deal and a compensation deal to the victim)


IF this was something more dire, where McKenna felt that he was in immediate physical danger. that would make this different, he'll still have to go through the court system, to decide if the actions he took were reasonable in terms of self defense.


If this is as I'm reading a idiot verbally shouting foul things at McKenna's mother, and McKenna cracking the kid, when there was an opportunity to walk away from the situation, things won't go well.


In the end though, its likely he'll pay a bunch of money to make this go away.


The Penn State thing might be more tricky, as they might be forced to sit him out until this blows over.

[InternationalVillager]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

This isn't a broad defense of the police, but I don't think it matters what his side of the story is when it comes to arresting and filing charges. They do that based on the complaint and evidence that supports the fact an assault occurred, then it's up to the court to consider his side of the story and if he was provoked to a point that a reasonable person would use violence. It's not like McKenna can say, well he was insulting my family, and the police would say well alright, you're free to put him in the hospital.

Yep. this is exactly what it is. Has an assault occurred? Yes. Do the police officers have reasonable evidence to believe it was committed by McKenna? Yes.

That's pretty much it for arrest and then the police officer will file a charge sheet.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by InternationalVillager

Yep. this is exactly what it is. Has an assault occurred? Yes. Do the police officers have reasonable evidence to believe it was committed by McKenna? Yes.

That's pretty much it for arrest and then the police officer will file a charge sheet.

Yup the cops aren't there to play judge at all, they looked at what happened, they talked to the victim in this case, they talk to McKenna, they talk to witnesses and look at any physical evidence. and they file the charges in this case that make sense.


What are the chances that they knew McKenna was a highly rated hockey player probably none. Would they care about McKenna being the consensus number 1 draft pick, not really.

[InternationalVillager]

One further thing I will say this that highly touted players should really think hard about whether they really want to go this NCAA route. The US is a whole different beast. The college culture is completely different. Not sure if its the best idea to be in that environment in your draft year if you've spent your entire life in Canada and are coming up in the Junior league.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

This isn't a broad defense of the police, but I don't think it matters what his side of the story is when it comes to arresting and filing charges. They do that based on the complaint and evidence that supports the fact an assault occurred, then it's up to the court to consider his side of the story and if he was provoked to a point that a reasonable person would use violence. It's not like McKenna can say, well he was insulting my family, and the police would say well alright, you're free to put him in the hospital.

Provocation is not a defence to assault. He will need to use self defence, that he punched because he had a reasonable belief he ( or his family) was in imminent physical danger.

Provocation can be used to reduce murder to manslaughter.

[sureLoss]

News Update

https://twitter.com/user/status/2019838120230039730

[MacDaddy77]

Dropping Felony Aggravated assault charge

https://x.com/WJACTV/status/2019838120230039730?s=20

[Reggie Dunlop]

That's a BIG break for McKenna.

[sureLoss]

https://twitter.com/user/status/2019843551178191223

[Tbull8]

So does this mean he still has to potentially settle with the victim? but there is no criminal charge?

[PeteMoss]

Odds a Penn State star athlete is going to get the book thrown at them unless it was something egregious was slim to nil.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Tbull8

So does this mean he still has to potentially settle with the victim? but there is no criminal charge?

There are still charges. The most serious one was dropped but others remain.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by BigFlameDog

I don't condone scrapping on the street but I did grow up in a town where it was, unfortunately, a regular occurrence. In my younger life I spent a bunch of time working in bars.

So I will say, if a dude was kicked out of the bar for harassing you and your Mom and sticks around to continue to harass you....and (assumption here) approaches you while your Mom is beside you (another assumption), you have to fail safe. You either run if you have time and your mom also can run, or, if no time and space, you fight to defend yourself and your mom. What if he has a weapon? You don't know at that time.

A jaw obviously be be broken with one punch, happens all the time...there is also a strong chance damage happened after he went out and hit the ground. It is a very unfortunate incident but if dumb dumb grabbed a cab when he got tossed, it doesn't happen.

Also, doormen should have made sure he was gone or called the campus cops. A miss there IMO.

The fight happened on the next block. Sounds like the doormen did their job, assuming their was an altercation in the bar in the first place.