USA Swimming in battle over sex-abuse complaint files

The national governing body for swimming has six days to reproduce files concerning complaints of sex abuse against coaches it sanctioned, according to a court order in which the Colorado Springs-based organization was fined $5,250 for not originally complying.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge gave USA Swimming a 20-day window from Oct. 15 to make available documents containing sex-abuse allegations against the NGB’s coaches to California lawyer Bob Allard, who represents families suing USA Swimming over what they call a lack of oversight that led to dozens of competitors allegedly being victimized.

USA Swimming turned over 1,864 pages of files to Allard in August, but the documents were “indecipherable,” Allard wrote in a Sept. 13 motion, noting they “were not provided in any logical order” and accusing the NGB of applying “a most liberal interpretation (of the court order) by redacting anything that provided any specifics whatsoever.”

Names of witnesses, cities, schools, swim clubs and police departments were struck from the documents, termed by Allard as “entirely nonsensical” and “virtually unreadable.” In six cases, USA Swimming redacted bits of newspaper articles, and in two cases, the NGB submitted identical documents with different redactions within each document.

Judge James Kleinberg ordered that the new documents from USA Swimming are “produced in a manner that segregates each document by complaint.” He also ordered the redactions should “be limited to the name, address, telephone number and other specific identifying number of the person making the complaint and the person subject to the complaint.”

Kleinberg’s ruling prohibits USA Swimming from making redactions to documents that were considered “in the public realm,” including newspaper articles, website pages, court files that haven’t been sealed and files from the NGB’s review board. The fine – payable to Allard’s anonymous client – is due Thursday, the deadline for USA Swimming to re-file.

“This is yet another example of the control group at USA Swimming doing anything and everything it can to obfuscate the truth about what it knew about predator coaches and its utter failure to protect children from sexual abuse,” Allard said.

Allard added, “Instead of owning up to its mistakes and making things right with victims and their families, this group … has shown over and over again a certain resiliency and defiance in its zeal to preserve the precious image of USA Swimming at all costs.”

“Legal counsel produced the requested documents, protecting the names and identifying information of individuals who made complaints and coaches that have not had a due process hearing,” USA Swimming attorney Jean Weil said. “USA Swimming encourages reporting of inappropriate behavior, and individuals need to know that they can safely report inappropriate conduct without fear of having their names exploited.”

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