Former USA Gymnastics President Arrested, Charged With Tampering Nassar Evidence
Larry Nassar is serving a prison sentence after hundreds of athletes accused him of sexual assault and molestation.
Authorities arrested former USA Gymnastics President Steve Perry after a grand jury indicted him on charges of tampering with evidence during the investigation into gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
#BREAKING: Sources tell me, Former USA Gymnastics President Stephen D. Penny was arrested in Gatlinburg, Tennessee by a team of Deputy U.S. Marshals and Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force Officers. Stay with @wsbtv for more. pic.twitter.com/PBVg0ejtsZ
— Nefertiti Jáquez (@NefertitiWSB) October 18, 2018
Here you go Pat: pic.twitter.com/5122T22cBl
— Nefertiti Jáquez (@NefertitiWSB) October 18, 2018
From NBC Sports:
The indictment alleges Penny ordered the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch relating to Nassar’s activities at the ranch, near Huntsville. It alleges Penny acted after learning that Texas Rangers and Walker County authorities were investigating the ranch, which was being managed by USA Gymnastics.
The indictment states the documents were delivered to Penny at the USA Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis, they have not been recovered and their whereabouts are unknown to authorities.
Penny was arrested arrested when a team of armed Marshalls arrived at a Tennessee vacation cabin while he was sitting with his wife and three children.
“When he went to Tennessee on a vacation with his family, Mr. Penny had no knowledge there had been an indictment in Texas,” his lawyers said in a statement. “Mr. Penny is confident that when all the facts are known it will be shown that he did nothing criminal.”
Nassar was charged in June with sexually assaulting six minors in Walker County. A former sports medicine trainer, Debra Van Horn, was also indicted on one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child. Prosecutors said Van Horn was charged as “acting as a party” with Nassar.
In Michigan, Nassar was sentenced earlier this year to decades in prison, after hundreds of women and girls accused him of molesting them with his hands under the guise of medical treatment. They said the abuse went as far back as the 1990s while he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.
Nassar was a former team doctor for both the women’s program at USA Gymnastics as well as Michigan State University athletics.
In Texas, a number of gymnasts who had trained at the Karolyi Ranch have said Nassar sexually assaulted them there. Walker County prosecutors have said there is no corroborated evidence of wrongdoing by world-renowned gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, and the couple has denied wrongdoing.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
