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DALLAS – Former USA Gymnastics president, Steve Penny, was arrested while he was in Tennessee on a family vacation. A Texas grand jury had not accused him of alleged falsification of evidence in the investigation into the sexual assault of the gymnastics attorney jailed Larry Nassar, a lawyer at the University of New York. former senior official said Thursday.
The Walker County Attorney 's Office said Penny was arrested Wednesday by a working group on fugitives after the September 28 indictment. Penny's lawyer, Edith Matthai, said in a statement that his client had been arrested in a vacation cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, while he was with his wife and three children.
Penny, who was named president of the organization in 2005 and resigned under pressure in March 2017, is awaiting extradition to Texas and was listed on the Tennessee Prisoner List Thursday afternoon.
Matthai said the authorities have made no attempt to order Penny to go to Texas before arrest.
"If Mr. Penny had any idea that he was wanted in Texas, it would have been handled appropriately by a lawyer without terrifying his family," she wrote in the statement.
The lawyer added that Penny is "confident that when all the facts are known, it will be shown that he has done nothing criminal".
According to the indictment, Penny reportedly ordered the removal of documents from Karolyi Ranch, near Huntsville, regarding Nassar's activities in that country. Penny reportedly acted after learning that the Texas Rangers and Walker County authorities were investigating the ranch, run by USA Gymnastics.
According to the indictment, the documents were handed over to Penny at the US headquarters of gymnastics in Indianapolis. The authorities did not recover them.
Investigators do not know if the documents were destroyed, Walker County Attorney Stephanie Stroud said Thursday. She declined to comment on the nature of the documents.
More than 250 women and girls claimed that Nassar, who worked for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, had sexually assaulted them under the pretext of medical treatment. He is currently serving up to 175 years in prison for assaulting women and girls and detaining child pornography.
In June, Nassar was charged with sexual assault on six miners in Walker County.
Former coach of sports medicine, Debra Van Horn, has also been indicted in Walker County for a second degree sexual assault of a child. Prosecutors said that Van Horn had been accused of "acting as a party" with Nassar.
Many others were charged, fired or forced to leave their jobs during the Nassar investigations.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it has "fully cooperated" with congressional and Texas investigations. The organization said it would continue to do so "to help the survivors and our community recover from this tragedy."
Angela Povilaitis, a former Michigan Assistant Attorney, who led the case against Nassar in the state, said on Twitter that Penny's arrest was "long overdue and that she was good news "for the victims.
"Steve Penny put the money and the medals on the protection of the child," she wrote. "When he had the opportunity, he did not do the right thing."
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