Ferland Trial

[PsYcNeT]

I thought Ferland and the witnesses stated he was acting in self-defence?

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by Delgar

Lots of piling on in this thread, I guess that's because I said I don't respect him.

The reason him being obscenely drunk matters is because it is what resulted in Ferland punching a random person-- someone who hadn't done anything to warrant/deserve it -- and breaking bones in his face.

I wouldn't hold anything against him if there was a reason he punched this guy. But this is a situation where he himself has said he punched the first guy he saw. Had the guy (Eyma) pushed Ferland or confronted him, I'd be OK with the punch. But the way it happened, it was an extremely drunk guy punching whomever was closest to him. Not acceptable, and not deserving of respect.

You mean the guy who punched him first?

[kermitology]

You don't think the intoxication plus being sucker punched doesn't contribute to mistakenly reacting to the wrong guy?

[Poe969]

LOL, no offense but that sounds like something a canucks fan would say.... I just punched him in the face and then he turns around and punches me in the face for no reason!

Alcohol was involved, he didn't start it, it's getting the attention it is because he's an athlete.

[hurtin_albertan]

Personally I can't fathom that after being sucker punched (think about what that means - someone hitting you as hard as they can in the face while you have zero opportunity to brace yourself), Ferland should have had his wits about him.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Beatle17

You mean the guy who punched him first?

Except he punched someone who didn't punch him... did he not?

After reading the last bit of this thread I can't get the scene from "Yes Man" out of my head where Jim Carey punches the bystander:
"But I'm the wrong guy"
"Well maybe you should start being the right guy"

Sorry, brief tangent.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by fotze

So if I am drunk and some guy punches me, I can punch whoever I want?

Sure. In fact, if that was the policy and everyone followed it I'm sure that fewer people would be throwing random punches at the bar.

[old-fart]

Based on what I read somewhere, it is a little more "grey area" than "punched the guy who punched him first" or "punched a random bystander".

If I recall, the dude who got clocked was with the dude who sucker punched Ferland - they were both confronting Ferland, everyone was drunk. Dude suckers Ferland who turned around, sees two guys who were confronting him, knows he's just been punched, and so he clocks the dude who he thinks likely did it - all in the matter of seconds. Not a lot of time to think "hmm, was it this dude who is confronting me, or that dude standing beside him and obviously friends who is also confronting me... well, that one has swollen knuckles so probably him, but that one looks madder so maybe him... perhaps we can call CSI to do some tests to determine the right dude first....". It is far more likely that one dude punches Ferland, he turns around and hits one of the two guys who were confronting him and were standing together, both likely mouthing off the same. It's not like he got punched and randomly punches some passerby on the street.

Seems pretty simple to me - dude and his friend started some crap in a bar with Ferland, acting very tough. One dude suckers Ferland, who turns and clocks one of them (may be the same guy, may be his buddy who was also there and almost assuredly involved). Clocked dude goes does, Ferland stumbles along his way. Cops come, clocked dude knows he was instigating it with his buddy so doesn't want to press any charges as he knows "he wasn't totally innocent". Some time later clocked dude learns that the dude he get clocked by is a professional hockey player and probably has money. Ding ding ding... now he changes his mind and wants to press charges and, oh ya, conveniently wants some cashola too.

Ferland was, based on what I've seen in the papers, quite rightly found not guilty. Clocked dude has admitted some fault to the cops. He has little chance of collecting unless Ferland wants to settle out of court, but it is far more likely they will both agree to drop their respective civil suits and this will go away.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Except he punched someone who didn't punch him... did he not?

We don't know.

Ferland's story was he was struck and turned around and hit someone. He was drunk and it was the closest person to him but he can not confirm the person who hit him was the person he hit.

His girlfriend, who had been drinking but was not drunk, has a similar story. She says Ferland was struck and turned around and hit someone but identified Eyma as the assailant. Eyma, the victim/accused, had initially told police that he was not completely innocent and didn't want to press charges. What "not completely innocent" means is up for debate but was used as defense for Ferland in his trail.

Eyma's story was he and his friend walked over to stop a man from pushing a woman. When his friend was pushed down Eyma came to his defense and got struck in the eye.

A bouncer identified Ferland as the person who punched Eyma but said no one was pushed to the ground.

At one point another bouncer said Eyma was hit by a 5'7'' 170 pound person.

Pretty much, like every case of drunken belligerence, no one quite knows exactly what happened.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Delgar

This is what we know based on articles/statements etc:

-Ferland was completely ####faced
-He wasn't convicted of assault, because he himself believed he was acting in self-defence. He hit the wrong guy because he was so drunk he didn't know who hit him. That was enough to avoid a conviction. His intent was self-defence, that was enough.
-On a civil standard, that doesn't constitute self-defence. Ferland has already admitted he didn't know who hit him and he just punched the first guy he saw.
-So now he doubles down in the civil action and alleges malicious prosecution among other things.

That's why I'm no Ferland fan. Looks like he has a good lawyer though.

It wasn't established that he hit the wrong guy. It was either he or his buddy that hit him first. IIRC these two guys, in their drunken haze crossed the street in order to interfere with Ferland and his girlfriend or his aunt. In other words, they were looking for trouble and got it.

[sureLoss]

The lawsuit has been dropped:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...over-1.3148845

A Calgary jury found Ferland acted in self-defence in 2014 when he punched another man in a 2012 bar fight in Cochrane, but the complainant sued after the acquittal.

The lawsuit was dropped last week.

"It feels good. It's been something that's been hovering over me for a while now," said Ferland, "I'm just happy it's something I don't have to worry about anymore."

When the Manitoba native first made headlines after the bar fight, he worried it was all he would be known for.

"[I] thought that might be it for my hockey career here in Calgary," said Ferland. "The toughest thing for me was just not being able to tell everyone my side of the story for the longest time."

Ferland's side of the story is that he was ambushed as he was leaving the bar that day, or "sucker punched," which is why he hit back.

"Before the playoffs I felt like a lot of fans thought I was the crazy kid who got in a bar fight," said Ferland, "I just want everyone to know that I'm a friendly guy and I'm easy to talk to and I care about my friends and my teammates."

Ferland's team goes beyond the players who wear the same jersey.

Kayleigh Chapman has been by Ferland's side through everything. Since they were teenagers, in fact. The couple met in high school and stayed together through her years playing NCAA hockey at an American college.

"I just hope people can see how fun and loving he actually is," said Chapman. "He's not all crazy and all about fighting. He's actually a really funny guy."

Lawyer Michael Bates represented Ferland in both the criminal and civil cases, and says his client bore the burden of his high-profile from the beginning.

"It's really hard because somebody who does have a public profile, people are always wondering, 'Why aren't they speaking, why aren't they telling their side of the story?'" said Bated. "I would say the results speak for themselves, there's good reasons why you don't go out and speak to the media until it's the right time."

With help from coach Bob Hartley, Ferland sought help for alcoholism and has been sober for more than a year. Hartley, who affectionately calls him Ferly, offered the same support when it came to his legal troubles.

"Bob's always had my back from the first day I met him," said Ferland. "He just told me this was just another step in becoming a pro and learning from my experience."

Ferland hopes this will be one of the last times he talks about his legal issues. He says there are more important things to focus on.

Contract negotiations are also underway and Ferland just wants to play hockey.

"I love the city. I love the sea of red and the fans are great and I want to play here as long as I can," he said.

[FBI]

I have a good feeling about this kid.

[Demetric]

I had totally forgotten about this a long time ago, hope he can now too forget about it

[CaptainCrunch]

The kid had a rough start to his career. The big turning point is asking for help and getting it, and that's full credit to Burke, the organization and from the sounds of it Big Ern.

We all knew he had the physical tools, a lot of us were really excited when the Flames drafted this kid. But its always been a matter of head meets skills and that took a few years.

Hopefully his confidence is at an all time high and he continues to establish himself next year as that physical mean winger that the Flames have so often lacked.

[Huntingwhale]

Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom and after that, you have no where to go but up. Glad to hear about Ferland putting all this crap behind him. Hopefully the other guy ends up paying his legal bills.

[DJones]

Whole situation was a big nothing to me. Two guys started a fight and Ferland ended it.

Still respect him for joining AA though.

[Kjesse]

This has progressed from a hockey prospect in a bar fight to NHLer realizing his potential. Not a happy ending yet, but an encouraging story.

[GioforPM]

It's so great Ferland has figured out his problem and adderssed it so early. A lot of guys (NHL or otherwise) don't.

I imagine the Flames will be monitoring and supporting him a lot - the environment he's going to be in makes it hard not to have "just one".