Unless something unforeseen occurs, Patrick Kane will not be prosecuted for rape. The Chicago Blackhawks winger is no doubt relieved; the alleged victim likely frustrated, and on social media the case will be tried at least until the next celebrity pushes Kane down the queue.
If you are reading this column looking for judgment however, I’ll warn you now: None is forthcoming. There is too much we don’t know about what happened that summer night after a reported evening of heavy drinking in Buffalo, and after reviewing rafts of evidence, if the New York court system did not deem this case worthy of a guilty or not guilty verdict, who are we to take it there?
Many, many rapes occur that can not be proven in court. Just because it is not brought to court does not definitively declare that a rape did not occur. Sometimes it means the evidence is simply too weak to gain a conviction. However, sometimes it means that the evidence proved that a rape did not occur.
The justice system is far from perfect. But it is kind of like (queue the convenient sports analogy) the Hawk-Eye system used to settle where tennis balls land in relation to the court boundaries. Everyone in tennis knows that it is not a perfect system, but it’s right far, far more often than it is wrong, and they play on.
So, if you are one who is saying today that the complainant was failed by this process, unless you were ready to acknowledge that Kane might be failed had it gone the other way, your opinion falls under the heading, “Biased.”
Said Kane in a statement released Thursday: “I have repeatedly said that I did nothing wrong. I have respected the legal process and I am glad that this matter has now been closed and I will have nothing further to say going forward.”
As an athlete however, Kane will continue to hear the cat calls in opposing arenas, like the “No means no!” chants at Barclays Center he heard last month. Reality states that those chants, perhaps the initial rape accusation itself, and the ensuing public derision come with the territory for today’s pro athlete.
It is a time rife with landmines for the recognizable figure, when everyone has a camera in their pocket or purse, an uninformed opinion on Twitter, and some hungry lawyer buddy who will take on the most hopeless case in hopes of their percentage of a quick pay out.
The flipside is Kane’s guaranteed $84 million contract.
It goes like this: You can’t carry yourself the way Babe Ruth did in 1929, when you’re being paid the way they pay superstar athletes in 2015.
Kane likes to cut loose during the off-season, and he is not shy about getting into his cups in a public setting. He is unmarried, rich, popular, and in my dealings with him, likely a very fun guy to be around. And he obviously meets girls. These are traits shared by most 26-year-old, multi-millionaires.
But that does not mean that we know what happened that night in Buffalo.
The sports media, as we do, rushed to judgment on this one, the way the news cycle forces us to do on so many things. It is clear now, however, that those who chastised the Blackhawks for not sitting Kane down until this investigation was completed, were wrong in their opinion.
The court system has found the complainant’s case to be lacking, and from that the presumption of Kane’s innocence must follow. That is his right, and those who infringe upon it are simply wrong to do so.
With the release of some further evidence by the Erie County D.A., the NHL issued this statement by Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, hinting that this play may be under further review: “In light of the statement issued today by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, as an internal League matter, we intend to promptly review the information that may now be available to us.”
In conclusion, everyone loses here — the alleged victim, Kane, and the rest of us who are left with no definitive ending.
And so in this particular case we move on, because that is Kane’s right.
If you have a better system, feel free to invent one.
