Penny is accused of interfering in an investigation of Lawrence G. Nassar, the national gymnastics team doctor who is serving 40 to 175 years in prison for sexual abuse.
Steve Penny, the former president and chief executive of U. S. A. Gymnastics, was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge of evidence tampering in a Texas investigation into sexual abuse by Lawrence G. Nassar, the imprisoned former doctor for the national gymnastics team.
A grand jury in Walker County, Tex., indicted Penny on Sept. 28 on allegations that he had ordered the removal of documents from a national team training center in the county after learning that an investigation had begun into Nassar’s behavior at the site.
If convicted, Penny could face two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office in Walker County.
The gymnastics federation has had two chief executives since Penny resigned under pressure in March 2017, and both were also forced out. The latest replacement, Mary Bono, stepped aside from her interim appointment on Tuesday, after holding the job less than a week.
The statement, which cited the indictment, said Penny had ordered the removal of the documents “for the purpose of impairing the ongoing investigation by destroying or hiding the documents.” The documents were sent to him at the U. S. A. Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis, the statement said, but law enforcement officials have yet to recover them.
Penny, who lives in a suburb of Indianapolis, was arrested by United States marshals in Tennessee Wednesday and was awaiting extradition to Texas, according to the statement from the district attorney’s office.
“Mr. Penny is confident that when all the facts are known the allegations against him will be disproven,’’ said a statement by Leigh Robie, one of his lawyers.
The statement said Penny had been on vacation in Tennessee with his family and that he had no idea he had been indicted.
“Mr. Penny was arrested when a team of armored marshals suddenly arrived at a vacation cabin while he was sitting with his wife and three children,” the lawyer’s statement said. “If Mr. Penny had any idea he was sought in Texas, this would have been appropriately handled through counsel without terrifying his family. Mr. Penny has not and would not have attempted to avoid the service of process.”
The training center, known as the Karolyi Ranch, is owned by Bela and Martha Karolyi, who are among the most prominent coaches in gymnastics history. The ranch is about 60 miles north of Houston, inside Sam Houston National Forest.
At a national team training camp there in the summer of 2015, a coach overheard a gymnast saying that Nassar had touched her inappropriately during one of his treatments. Penny was informed that Nassar had been accused of abuse, but U. S. A. Gymnastics decided to investigate the case internally and waited five weeks before notifying the F. B. I.
Nassar, who has been accused of abusing hundreds of girls and women, was sentenced 40 to 175 years in prison in the case early this year.
Many of Nassar’s victims on the national team have said they were assaulted during visits to the ranch’s training center, which is why the Texas Rangers and the Walker County Sheriff’s Office started their own inquiry.
The investigation also has led to the indictment of Debra Van Horn, a sports medicine trainer, on a charge of sexual assault of a child.
John Manly, a lawyer for many of Nassar’s victims, said of Penny’s arrest: “This is a day that frankly our clients have been waiting for, for years. Larry Nassar molested little girls for 30 years, and he had enablers, Steve Penny being among the worst. The families of the 55 children who were molested after Mr. Penny acknowledged he knew about the abuse in the summer 2015 are especially gratified.”
