Former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny arrested on charges of falsifying evidence
Former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny arrested on charges of falsifying evidence
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Former congresswoman Mary Bono resigned as interim CEO of USA Gymnastics amid pressure from Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and other gymnasts from the United States.
USA TODAYCorrections and clarifications: an earlier version of this story was wrong when the Texas Rangers first went to the Karolyi Ranch. It was in November 2016.
Marshals, from the USA On Wednesday, he arrested the former CEO and president of USA Gymnastics in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for an order to falsify evidence related to the investigation of possible irregularities at Karolyi Ranch.
Steve Penny was being held in the Sevier County Jail late on Wednesday night, awaiting his extradition to Walker County, Texas, where he was indicted by a grand jury on September 28 for a charge of evidence tampering , a third degree felony.
According to a statement from David Weeks, the district attorney in Walker County, Penny ordered the removal of documents from Karolyi Ranch after learning that the Texas Rangers were investigating allegations that Larry Nassar had sexually abused the gymnasts. The records were given to Penny in Indianapolis, but their current whereabouts are unknown.
The crime of third degree is punishable by two to 10 years in prison.
"The elimination of the documents was done with the purpose of damaging the ongoing investigation by destroying or hiding the documents," the statement said. "The Texas Rangers and the detectives believe that those records ... would have assisted in their investigation of Nassar and helped in the investigation of other crimes that may have occurred at the Karolyi Ranch."
Penny was arrested while on vacation with his wife and three daughters, his lawyer, Edith Matthai, told USA TODAY Sports in an email. I did not know he had been accused, she said.
"If Mr. Penny had any idea that he was wanted in Texas, this would have been handled properly through a lawyer," Matthai wrote. "Mr. Penny has not tried and would not have tried to avoid the service of a subpoena.
"Mr. Penny is confident that when all the facts are known, the accusations against him will be refuted," Matthai added.
Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney are among the more than 350 young women and girls who have said that Nassar bothered them under the guise of medical treatment. Part of that abuse occurred at the Karolyi Ranch, the site of the monthly training camps for the women's team in the United States.
Nassar, the longtime physician at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State, is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to federal charges of child pornography and state charges of sexual abuse.
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It is not known when Penny ordered the removal of the documents, which are believed to be medical records of gymnasts. The Texas Rangers went to the ranch in November 2016 to investigate allegations of abuse against Nassar, which had come to light two months earlier when Rachael Denhollander contacted. The star of Indianapolis, part of the USA TODAY network.
Rhonda Faehn, the former head of the women's program, told a Senate committee in June that a US Gymnastics employee had been asked to retrieve the records. In the follow-up questions written, Faehn said the employee, Amy White, "told me that Steve Penny ordered her to remove the records and bring them back to Indianapolis."
White told him that the records were removed in a "large suitcase and two large boxes," Faehn said.
Faehn said he had no direct knowledge of the removal, when it happened or where the records are currently located. In July, then-CEO Kerry Perry confirmed Faehn's account and said that Penny told Amy White to bring the ranch's medical records. USA Gymnastics did not register them, Perry said.
"Where those documents went, I do not know," Perry told the committee. "They also told me that there was no kind of login, so to speak, of those documents in the organization, but those documents were delivered to then-CEO Steve Penny."
She continued: "As far as I know, they do not exist in our custody."
Penny was called to testify during the Senate hearing in June, but she invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions so as not to incriminate herself. He is named as a defendant in federal trials filed by Raisman and his Olympic champion Jordyn Wieber, as well as in California state court by former gymnasts Mattie Larson and Jeanette Antolin.
Penny resigned under pressure from the US Olympic Committee. UU In March of 2017 for the handling of abuse cases in USA Gymnastics. Perry resigned last month, also under pressure from the USOC.
Neither USOC nor USA Gymnastics responded to the messages of USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday at the last minute in search of comments.
Gymnasts have said that Bela and Martha Karolyi created a culture of fear and intimidation in the women's program that allowed Nassar to thrive.
Bela Karolyi was hired at the end of 1999 to be the first coordinator of the women's national team, and Martha replaced him in 2001 and served until after the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. Monthly training camps were held on her ranch since 2000 until the beginning of this year.
The ranch is located in the heart of Sam Houston National Forest, where there was little reception of cell phones or Internet access. The gymnasts said that Nassar took advantage of the poor conditions and the intense training environment to prepare them, lending a sympathetic ear on difficult days and squeezing them out. He also had free rein in the facilities, the only adult who could enter their rooms.
Nassar was indicted in Walker County in June on six counts of sexual assault on a child, a second-degree felony. The former US gymnastics coach was also accused. UU Debbie Van Horn, on a charge of sexual assault.
The Karolyis were interviewed extensively, but Walker County officials said they did not find "corroborated evidence of criminal conduct."
However, at that time they said that the investigation was still open and that they had requested records and documents from USA Gymnastics.
"If we get other information and get access to records and things," Stephan Waldorf County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Stroud said, "there may be other charges."
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