Reid Boucher pleads guilty to sex crime involving 12 year old

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AfroThunder396

[citation needed]
Jan 8, 2006
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In Boucher's draft year he suddenly switched billet families and then a few months later switched from the OHL to NCAA even though he already had a spot lined up - and you think the Lou and Conte didn't ask about that?

Lou is a totalitarian and micromanager who doesn't let anything get by him. He knows every single thing about every single person in his organization. And this is just one in a long streak from 2010-2014 where stuff like this was happening.

2010 - Drafted Jon Merrill who had been suspended for "character issues" before the draft. He was later suspended again at college for the same "character issues," which later turned out to be stalking/harassing a female classmate. And now he's being implicated in obtaining sexual images of a minor while he played for the Devils.

2011 - Drafted Reid Boucher. Again, this happened before his draft year and there were suspicious changes to where Boucher was living and playing, which are pretty standard things to look into in his draft year. And there appear to be multiple victims.

2012 - Drafted Ben Johnson. A year after he was drafted he was accused of raping two women, one of whom was 16 at the time. The Devils signed him to an ELC while his case was pending and only terminated his contract after he was convicted. Considering he admitted to the acts (his defense was they consented), Lou was totally fine knowing his player who was 19 at the time had sex with a minor and, was willing to give him an NHL career until it became a PR nightmare.

2013 - Drafted Myles Bell. Bell was a 17 year old drunk driver who killed his girlfriend in a fatal accident while going +100 miles an hour. He got off with two years probation and community service because he was a minor. He went undrafted that his first two years of eligibility, plead to a lesser charge, and the Devils took him later as an overager. When he was drafted they all talked about "second chances" and all that stuff but didn't really say anything about why he earned a second chance. This is not a sex crime and there's no evidence of any criminal behavior from him since, but put in the context of the other guys he took a pattern emerges.

Pretty clear history of Lou ignoring criminal behavior, and these are just the ones that have been made public. In the case of Merrill and Boucher there are multiple incidents which appear to have happened after the player was drafted and signed by NJ, which makes Lou an enabler. He's either lying about not knowing or doing a pretty shitty job as GM (or both).
 

Byron Bitz

Registered User
Apr 6, 2010
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Brock Turner, whose father said that his son didnt deserve to have his life ruined over "20 minutes of fun". The convicted rapist, Brock Turner.
The ironic thing about the Brock Turner case is that the judges lenient sentence ended up being terrible for Brock. The massive amount of public shaming he’s received has ruined his life (deservedly so). If the judge ha fed him 5 years he would have served his time then got to live a pretty normal rest of his life. Now everywhere he goes he’s known as “The Stanford Rapist”
 

WhatTheDuck

9 - 20 - 8
May 17, 2007
24,628
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Exactly. Nowadays people just want to blame everyone and everything in these cases. Reid Boucher is the only one who should get all the blame.

Heavily disagree, people who sweep these things under the rug, especially those who are in a position of power, are definitely part of the problem and simply can't be trusted with those positions moving forward.

No one should be throwing those organizations under the bus without evidence, but they should 100% be investigated. If any USA hockey official(s) were at all aware of the extent of the accusations and did nothing besides move him to a new billet home, that's simply not ok at all.

Maybe it turns out knew nothing, players being moved to new billets is not uncommon at all as has been pointed out. However, the narrative here isn't looking good right now.
 
Mar 12, 2009
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No. You can go read the other thread. No one made excuses for what he did nor did anyone "defend" him, and I think both threads you will find a unanimous declaration that this was a heinous crime that is absolutely 100% unacceptable.
it went of the rails because a guy was calling people criticizing Reid "pieces of shit", and saying everyone was just "blindly believing a 12 year olds testimony".
 

Number8

Registered User
Oct 31, 2007
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In Boucher's draft year he suddenly switched billet families and then a few months later switched from the OHL to NCAA even though he already had a spot lined up - and you think the Lou and Conte didn't ask about that?

Lou is a totalitarian and micromanager who doesn't let anything get by him. He knows every single thing about every single person in his organization. And this is just one in a long streak from 2010-2014 where stuff like this was happening.

2010 - Drafted Jon Merrill who had been suspended for "character issues" before the draft. He was later suspended again at college for the same "character issues," which later turned out to be stalking/harassing a female classmate. And now he's being implicated in obtaining sexual images of a minor while he played for the Devils.

2011 - Drafted Reid Boucher. Again, this happened before his draft year and there were suspicious changes to where Boucher was living and playing, which are pretty standard things to look into in his draft year. And there appear to be multiple victims.

2012 - Drafted Ben Johnson. A year after he was drafted he was accused of raping two women, one of whom was 16 at the time. The Devils signed him to an ELC while his case was pending and only terminated his contract after he was convicted. Considering he admitted to the acts (his defense was they consented), Lou was totally fine knowing his player who was 19 at the time had sex with a minor and, was willing to give him an NHL career until it became a PR nightmare.

2013 - Drafted Myles Bell. Bell was a 17 year old drunk driver who killed his girlfriend in a fatal accident while going +100 miles an hour. He got off with two years probation and community service because he was a minor. He went undrafted that his first two years of eligibility, plead to a lesser charge, and the Devils took him later as an overager. When he was drafted they all talked about "second chances" and all that stuff but didn't really say anything about why he earned a second chance. This is not a sex crime and there's no evidence of any criminal behavior from him since, but put in the context of the other guys he took a pattern emerges.

Pretty clear history of Lou ignoring criminal behavior, and these are just the ones that have been made public. In the case of Merrill and Boucher there are multiple incidents which appear to have happened after the player was drafted and signed by NJ, which makes Lou an enabler. He's either lying about not knowing or doing a pretty shitty job as GM (or both).
Yeah, but were any of these guys wicked good at hockey?

Disgraceful. Wish I could say this was the culture then, but of course the Habs have shown that this kind of thing continues to this day.
 

Number8

Registered User
Oct 31, 2007
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The ironic thing about the Brock Turner case is that the judges lenient sentence ended up being terrible for Brock. The massive amount of public shaming he’s received has ruined his life (deservedly so). If the judge ha fed him 5 years he would have served his time then got to live a pretty normal rest of his life. Now everywhere he goes he’s known as “The Stanford Rapist”
I wish I could thank the judge for this, but he's a scum bag. That said, I'm thrilled to hear this. I mean even Olympic swimmers should pay a small price for their "20 minutes of fun" or whatever it was his entitled piece of shit father said at the time.
 
Mar 12, 2009
7,519
7,795
Sadly even if they threw the book at him, you just know he’d be in protective custody.

Which that whole thing…is another joke. Throw him in the general prison population and let the bikers and skinheads deal with him.
The problem with having death be a likely option for cases like these with living victims, is that offenders will often escalate to murder to avoid having a living victim as witness.
 
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beowulf

Not a nice guy.
Jan 29, 2005
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Brock Turner, whose father said that his son didnt deserve to have his life ruined over "20 minutes of fun". The convicted rapist, Brock Turner.
And no need to wonder where Brock Turner got his attitude towards women from if that is true.
 

AfroThunder396

[citation needed]
Jan 8, 2006
39,729
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Miami, FL
In Boucher's draft year he suddenly switched billet families and then a few months later switched from the OHL to NCAA even though he already had a spot lined up - and you think the Lou and Conte didn't ask about that?

Lou is a totalitarian and micromanager who doesn't let anything get by him. He knows every single thing about every single person in his organization. And this is just one in a long streak from 2010-2014 where stuff like this was happening.

2010 - Drafted Jon Merrill who had been suspended for "character issues" before the draft. He was later suspended again at college for the same "character issues," which later turned out to be stalking/harassing a female classmate. And now he's being implicated in obtaining sexual images of a minor while he played for the Devils.

2011 - Drafted Reid Boucher. Again, this happened before his draft year and there were suspicious changes to where Boucher was living and playing, which are pretty standard things to look into in his draft year. And there appear to be multiple victims.

2012 - Drafted Ben Johnson. A year after he was drafted he was accused of raping two women, one of whom was 16 at the time. The Devils signed him to an ELC while his case was pending and only terminated his contract after he was convicted. Considering he admitted to the acts (his defense was they consented), Lou was totally fine knowing his player who was 19 at the time had sex with a minor and, was willing to give him an NHL career until it became a PR nightmare.

2013 - Drafted Myles Bell. Bell was a 17 year old drunk driver who killed his girlfriend in a fatal accident while going +100 miles an hour. He got off with two years probation and community service because he was a minor. He went undrafted that his first two years of eligibility, plead to a lesser charge, and the Devils took him later as an overager. When he was drafted they all talked about "second chances" and all that stuff but didn't really say anything about why he earned a second chance. This is not a sex crime and there's no evidence of any criminal behavior from him since, but put in the context of the other guys he took a pattern emerges.

Pretty clear history of Lou ignoring criminal behavior, and these are just the ones that have been made public. In the case of Merrill and Boucher there are multiple incidents which appear to have happened after the player was drafted and signed by NJ, which makes Lou an enabler. He's either lying about not knowing or doing a pretty shitty job as GM (or both).
I'll also add that Lou has been investigated for refusing to test and report concussions and forcing players them to play through concussion symptoms.

Devils fans will forever revere Lou because he dragged us out of being a Mickey Mouse franchise and brought us 3 Cups, but it's pretty clear his old school mentality , either by directly hurting them through negligence and selfishness or enabling bad people who hurt others.
 
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SaltNPeca

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Jan 9, 2017
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A comprehensive third party review of USA Hockey's handling of the incident is required here. If they had any inkling about this and chose to bury it, heads should roll.
Agree.
Similar to the Chicago incident the victim seems to have reported, at least in part, thru the organization. This is the point where a 3rd party can come in and investigate. People ask all kind of questions about victims reporting (or not) and the amount of time that passes... yet we have several hockey organizations and individuals demonstrably ignoring reports of sexual abuse, and that's not the #1 issue?

REPORTS OF SEXUAL ABUSE NEED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY & INVESTIGATED

The Detroit Free Press story also claims that USA Hockey was contacted about the incident in 2011, but all it did was remove Boucher from that billet home and put him in a new one.
 

MacMacandBarbie

Registered User
Dec 9, 2019
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In Boucher's draft year he suddenly switched billet families and then a few months later switched from the OHL to NCAA even though he already had a spot lined up - and you think the Lou and Conte didn't ask about that?

Lou is a totalitarian and micromanager who doesn't let anything get by him. He knows every single thing about every single person in his organization. And this is just one in a long streak from 2010-2014 where stuff like this was happening.

2010 - Drafted Jon Merrill who had been suspended for "character issues" before the draft. He was later suspended again at college for the same "character issues," which later turned out to be stalking/harassing a female classmate. And now he's being implicated in obtaining sexual images of a minor while he played for the Devils.

2011 - Drafted Reid Boucher. Again, this happened before his draft year and there were suspicious changes to where Boucher was living and playing, which are pretty standard things to look into in his draft year. And there appear to be multiple victims.

2012 - Drafted Ben Johnson. A year after he was drafted he was accused of raping two women, one of whom was 16 at the time. The Devils signed him to an ELC while his case was pending and only terminated his contract after he was convicted. Considering he admitted to the acts (his defense was they consented), Lou was totally fine knowing his player who was 19 at the time had sex with a minor and, was willing to give him an NHL career until it became a PR nightmare.

2013 - Drafted Myles Bell. Bell was a 17 year old drunk driver who killed his girlfriend in a fatal accident while going +100 miles an hour. He got off with two years probation and community service because he was a minor. He went undrafted that his first two years of eligibility, plead to a lesser charge, and the Devils took him later as an overager. When he was drafted they all talked about "second chances" and all that stuff but didn't really say anything about why he earned a second chance. This is not a sex crime and there's no evidence of any criminal behavior from him since, but put in the context of the other guys he took a pattern emerges.

Pretty clear history of Lou ignoring criminal behavior, and these are just the ones that have been made public. In the case of Merrill and Boucher there are multiple incidents which appear to have happened after the player was drafted and signed by NJ, which makes Lou an enabler. He's either lying about not knowing or doing a pretty shitty job as GM (or both).

Ironically the guy is playing for the KC Mavericks of the ECHL averaging a point per game and looking like he still has a shot.
 

Captain3rdLine

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Sep 24, 2020
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That he just randomly got moved out of the billets house and this had nothing to do with it.
Well it could be a coincidence or it probably had something to do with it. That doesn’t mean USA hockey knew what happened. The family could’ve asked for him to be moved out, he could’ve asked or they could’ve just heard something and decided. There’s a ton of ways it could’ve gone down that don’t mean USA hockey knew what happened. Kids get moved out of billets all of the time and no one has said yet that USA hockey was told and knew. If they did then shame on them but as of right now nothing and no one has said they did. It’s very common for players to get moved between billet houses for a bunch of different reasons sometimes big but usually pretty small.
 

Kahvi

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Well it could be a coincidence or it probably had something to do with it. That doesn’t mean USA hockey knew what happened. The family could’ve asked for him to be moved out, he could’ve asked or they could’ve just heard something and decided. There’s a ton of ways it could’ve gone down that don’t mean USA hockey knew what happened. Kids get moved out of billets all of the time and no one has said yet that USA hockey was told and knew. If they did then shame on them but as of right now nothing and no one has said they did. It’s very common for players to get moved between billet houses for a bunch of different reasons sometimes big but usually pretty small.

from Survivor 'disgusted' as ex-NHL player gets deal in sex assault case

The report indicates one of the friends told her parents about the 12-year-old’s statements, and one parent contacted USA Hockey.
 

Captain3rdLine

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That says absolutely nothing. It assumes that the full details were passed on to the friends, then that friend told her mom what happened, and then the mom went to USA hockey and told them what happened. The mom literally could’ve gone to USA hockey and said she had heard something about Boucher or that her daughter’s friend wasn’t comfortable with Boucher being around. Who knows but once again the fact that no one has said USA hockey knew is curious to me and until someone does people shouldn’t just assume they knew. They were contacted by a friends mom certainly doesn’t mean they were told what happened. It’s actually quite odd. Why was it the friends mom contacting them? Did that mom contact the other girls parents and if so why didn’t the victims parents talked to USA hockey and the police?
Just saying it isn’t a very clear situation.
 

Kahvi

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That says absolutely nothing. It assumes that the full details were passed on to the friends, then that friend told her mom what happened, and then the mom went to USA hockey and told them what happened. The mom literally could’ve gone to USA hockey and said she had heard something about Boucher or that her daughter’s friend wasn’t comfortable with Boucher being around. Who knows but once again the fact that no one has said USA hockey knew is curious to me and until someone does people shouldn’t just assume they knew. They were contacted by a friends mom certainly doesn’t mean they were told what happened.

In that case it would be really weird if USA hockey didn't talk with victim's parents to see if there was something wrong (parents didn't know about this until 3 years later).
 
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Captain3rdLine

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In that case it would be really weird if USA hockey didn't talk with victim's parents to see if there was something wrong (parents didn't know about this until 3 years later).
Yes it’s all very weird but as I said they were contacted but who knows what the friends mom said. She literally could’ve just said her daughters friend wasn’t comfortable with Boucher around or hat she was worried something was going on. In that case USA hockey may not have thought it was a big deal but just moved him out. It also doesn’t say they didn’t contact her parents. USA hockey said they met with the parents. If the parents didn’t know and thought there was no th I had wrong that could’ve been the end of it.
 

Sidney the Kidney

One last time
Jun 29, 2009
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Are you familiar with rapist Brock Turner? Received 6 months because he was a swimmer in college and the judge felt sorry for him.

Was that the case where the judge said something to the effect that he (the accused) had a lot of potential and didn't want his life ruined over one mistake?
 

Statto

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This has nothing to do with hockey culture. It just happened to be a hockey player who did the abuse. These things happen a lot, unfortunately, in all walks of life.
The cover up is a culture issue though. It’s not just hockey that does this but it’s not every organisation either, it’s not just sexual assault it’s other abuse also (gymnastics being a recent example). There being other examples doesn’t excuse hockey in any way, there have been enough high profile incidents over the years so that by now the system should be bullet proof and it is far from that. It seems it’s not been a priority.
 
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The Professional

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Hi Reid, why don't you have a seat?

1c0ff0.jpg
 

Fish on The Sand

Untouchable
Feb 28, 2002
60,375
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That says absolutely nothing. It assumes that the full details were passed on to the friends, then that friend told her mom what happened, and then the mom went to USA hockey and told them what happened. The mom literally could’ve gone to USA hockey and said she had heard something about Boucher or that her daughter’s friend wasn’t comfortable with Boucher being around. Who knows but once again the fact that no one has said USA hockey knew is curious to me and until someone does people shouldn’t just assume they knew. They were contacted by a friends mom certainly doesn’t mean they were told what happened. It’s actually quite odd. Why was it the friends mom contacting them? Did that mom contact the other girls parents and if so why didn’t the victims parents talked to USA hockey and the police?
Just saying it isn’t a very clear situation.
If this is true then the absolute best case scenario for USA Hockey is willful ignorance.

If they didn't know what happened then it's because they made sure they didn't know.

That's just as bad imo.
 
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nowhereman

Registered User
Jan 24, 2010
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Why not just lynch him already?

I get the upset but that type of "justice" is really the type of world you want to live in?
It should tell you something that, despite being some of the most deplorable people you'll ever come across, most criminals draw the line at kids. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but I have no sympathy for anyone who hurts children and there's a sense of karmatic justice in knowing that pedophiles and rapists are dealt back some of the suffering they've imposed on others. I know it's not a highly moral viewpoint but I've seen just how damaging child abuse can be to loved ones and I have nothing but seething hate for those who commit it.
 

Fish on The Sand

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It should tell you something that, despite being some of the most deplorable people you'll ever come across, most criminals draw the line at kids. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but I have no sympathy for anyone who hurts children and there's a sense of karmatic justice in knowing that pedophiles and rapists are dealt back some of the suffering they've imposed on others. I know it's not a highly moral viewpoint but I've seen just how damaging child abuse can be to loved ones and I have nothing but seething hate for those who commit it.
The true mark of enlightenment is how we treat the worst among us.
 
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