from www.washingtonpost.com – A former Los Angeles Kings hockey player and current assistant coach was charged Friday with sexually assaulting his adult daughter at the Mayflower Hotel.

Mark Hardy, 51, was charged with fourth-degree sexual abuse in connection with fondling his daughter in the hotel room after the two walked from a bar on 19th Street around 1 a. m. The daughter reportedly attends college in D.C.

The victim told police that she and her father were “very intoxicated,” and after she had changed her clothes, got into bed and fell asleep, she was awakened by her father laying next to her and touching her inappropriately [some news reports say Hardy had his hands down her pants], according to documents filed late Friday in D.C. Superior Court.

After first denying that anything happened, Hardy apologized to his daughter, the court papers said. She then ran from the room to the front desk for help.

At his initial hearing Friday, prosecutors said Hardy declined to be interviewed by pre-trial services. Magistrate Judge Karen Howze ordered Hardy released, but ordered him to turn in his passport, undergo alcohol evaluation and to have no contact, verbal, physical or electronic with his daughter.

Hardy was represented by the District’s Public Defender Service and declined to comment after the hearing. Hardy’s next hearing is scheduled for June 4.

Hardy played for the Kings from 1979-1988 and again from 1992-1994. He also served as assistant coach for the team. Hardy also played for the New York Rangers and Minnesota North Stars, and was an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks.

from www.nydailynews.com – Mark Hardy, a former Rangers defenseman and currently an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings, was arrested Friday in Washington and charged with sexual assault.

Hardy, 51, was arrested at the famed Mayflower Hotel, steps from the White House. Metropolitan Police Dept. spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said police were called to the Connecticut Ave. hotel just after 1 a.m.

Multiple news outlets reported the complainant was a female relative of Hardy’s. Hardy made an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court late yesterday.

Authorities initially had charged him with misdemeanor sexual assault but prosecutors in Washington later discussed plans to raise the charge to a felony.

The Kings said in a statement Friday: “We are aware of the charge. Due to the legal nature of this matter we will not have any additional comments at this time.”

Hardy, a Swiss native, spent two stints as a player with the Rangers, first arriving from the Kings in 1988 in a trade that sent Ron Duguay to L.A. After just 19 games for the Blueshirts, he was dealt to Minnesota for Louie DeBrusk, who three years later would be included in the package to Edmonton that brought back Mark Messier. Hardy returned only 15 games into the 1988-89 season and remained on Broadway until the Rangers returned him to the Kings in 1993.

Hardy also has worked two stints on the Kings’ coaching staff, with two years as a Blackhawks assistant in between. His first go-round in L.A. included an April 2006 run-in with Sean Avery during a Kings practice, which resulted in the Kings sending Avery home for the final three games of the season. The Kings traded Avery to New York 10 months later.

The long-renowned Mayflower Hotel gained even greater notoriety in 2008 as the place where former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer – aka, “Client 9” – booked a room under the pseudonym “George Fox” for his doomed tryst with prostitute Ashley Dupre, the assignation erupting into a sex scandal and leading to the governor’s resignation.