Photo courtesy: CFL.ca
Former CFL player Michael Hampden-Carter, better known as Michael Carter, has been found not guilty on six counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation stemming from his time as an advisor at a Windsor high school.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Brian Dube ruled on Wednesday that the Crown did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and questioned the testimony of the three female complainants, who alleged that Hampden-Carter touched them inappropriately and made sexual comments towards them while they were students in 2022. According to the Windsor Star, he highlighted “significant and material inconsistencies” between the accounts of the accusers, deeming some testimony to be “vindictive” in nature.
However, Justice Dube noted that Hampden-Carter demonstrated “a serious lapse of professional judgement” in some of his actions, including driving the students home, possessing their personal phone numbers and communicating outside of school channels, and disclosing aspects of his sexual history.
At the time of the alleged incident, Hampden-Carter was an employee of the Greater Essex County School Board and served as a high school advisor. Due to the nature of his position, he was involved with multiple schools and had served as a coach and mentor in the local football community for several years. He has not worked in that capacity since his arrest in March 2022.
The Windsor Star reported that Hampden-Carter was also found not guilty on an unrelated sexual assault charge in a separate Ontario Superior Court case in January.
The 44-year-old was selected 19th overall in the third round of the 2011 CFL Draft by the B.C. Lions after an NCAA career at the University of Maryland. He was released by the team after training camp, but spent seven seasons in the CFL with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Montreal Alouettes, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Edmonton Football Team, and Toronto Argonauts.
Hampden-Carter played 65 games over that span, making eight starts. He finished his career in 2017 with 34 defensive tackles and 19 special teams tackles.
