Former American Hockey League coach Clark Donatelli indicted on four counts of sexual assault
Clark Donatelli, who played briefly in NHL, has been indicted on sexual assault charges that allegedly occurred while he was an American Hockey League coach.
A statewide grand jury charged Donatelli, 55, with four counts of second-degree sexual assault. The sealed indictment was delivered in July, and Donatelli was arraigned on Nov. 10, according to the Rhode Island Attorney General's office.
Donatelli, who played 35 NHL games between the Minnesota North Stars and Boston Bruins, was released on $10,000 bail ahead of a Dec. 15 pretrial conference in Providence Superior Court. As a condition of his bail, he is barred from contacting the 46-year-old woman.
The incident that led to the charges "occurred in the city of Providence sometime on November 1, 2018," according to the attorney general's office.
A civil lawsuit had been filed in the alleged incident, which took place after a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins away game against the Providence Bruins. Donatelli, the Penguins' head coach at the time, allegedly groped the victim and stuck his hands down her pants while they were attempting to get a ride back to their hotel.
That lawsuit, which accused the Pittsburgh Penguins of "negligently retaining a known serial harasser, defendant Clark Donatelli, as a head coach, allowing him to harass and sexually assault women," was settled earlier this month.
Donatelli, who now lives in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, resigned from his coaching position with the Penguins in 2019. According to The Athletic, he most recently coached a hockey team in Germany, but was released from those duties in September.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Clark Donatelli, ex-hockey coach, indicted on sexual assault charges
