Ex-USA Gymnastics Head Indicted, Arrested

Steve Penny is accused of evidence tampering
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 18, 2018 12:24 AM CDT
Ex-USA Gymnastics Head Indicted, Arrested
In this Feb. 5, 2018 photo, Larry Nassar appears in Eaton County Court in Charlotte, Mich.   (Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal via AP, File)

Former USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny was arrested Wednesday after a Texas grand jury indicted him, alleging he tampered with evidence in the sexual assault investigation of now-imprisoned gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. In a statement issued late Wednesday night, the Walker County district attorney's office in Huntsville, Texas, said Penny was arrested by a fugitive task force in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and awaits extradition to Texas. The third-degree felony is punishable by two to 10 years in prison. The indictment alleges Penny ordered the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch relating to Nassar's activities at the ranch, near Huntsville, the AP reports.

The indictment alleges Penny acted after learning that Texas Rangers and Walker County authorities were investigating the ranch, which was being managed by USA Gymnastics. It 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. 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. In Texas, a number of gymnasts who had trained at the Karolyi Ranch have said Nassar sexually assaulted them there. (The interim president of USA Gymnastics has stepped down after just four days in the job.)

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