Steve Penny

The former president and chief executive of USA Gymnastics was detained by U.S. marshals Wednesday October 17 2018, authorities announced, in connection with criminal charges of tampering with evidence relating to convicted serial pedophile Larry Nassar. Steve Penny was taken into custody in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and is awaiting extradition to Texas, according to a news release issued by the district attorney of Walker County, home to the Karolyi Ranch, where America’s top female gymnasts trained until earlier this year. A grand jury in Walker County has indicted Penny for tampering with evidence, the district attorney said, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison. Penny, who lives in suburban Indianapolis, was on vacation in Tennessee with his wife and three daughters, wrote attorney Edith Matthai. The grand jury alleged that Penny — after he knew a law enforcement investigation of Nassar’s abuses of young gymnasts had begun — ordered the removal of documents relating to Nassar’s treatment of gymnasts from the Karolyi Ranch. The documents were delivered to Penny at USA Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis, the release stated, and have never been recovered. Penny was indicted by a grand jury examining Nassar’s alleged abuses at Karolyi Ranch, the facility near Huntsville, Texas run by famed former Olympic coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, who have declared their innocence of culpability for Nassar’s abuses and have not been charged with a crime. Penny oversaw the Olympic sports organization from 2005 until 2017, when he resigned under criticism for his handling of complaints about Nassar two years earlier