Lawyer of sex abuse victims calls on USA Swimming to purge its ranks
A San Jose lawyer representing sexual abuse victims has called for the removal of eight individuals from USA Swimming in an open letter to the national governing body’s chief executive Tim Hinchey.
The action by Robert Allard, a partner at Corsiglia, McMahon and Allard, is the latest move to get American swimming leadership to address decades of sexual abuse of female athletes by coaches.
It comes three weeks after a half dozen women filed a series of civil lawsuits alleging USA Swimming and its officials did not do enough to stop sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of their coaches. Five of the complainants competed in the Bay Area.
“This letter is a message to them: We’re not going away. We’re going to keep at it until we are ensured that caring for children is the No. 1 priority,” Allard said Wednesday in an interview.
Included among the eight individuals named in the letter were former Olympic coaches Mark Schubert, Murray Stephens and Paul Bergen. Schubert and Stephens have been named in past lawsuits for alleged coverups of sexual abuse of coaches. Bergen was publicly accused of abusing a 1972 Olympic gold medalist starting when she was 11 years old.
Also named in the letter that was delivered Tuesday was Clint Benton of Concord, Millie Nygren of Pleasanton and Steve Morselli, coach of the Pleasanton Seahawks swim club. Allard’s letter alleged the East Bay swim officials did not report complaints about one-time coach Andy King, who is serving a 40-year sentence for sexually abusing minor female swimmers.
Nygren said in an interview Wednesday that she had not seen Allard’s letter and was baffled to be named when she has little to do with the sport anymore.
Benton and Morselli did not immediately respond to attempts to reach them.
USA Swimming officials also did not immediately respond to a request to respond to the letter.
The two other individuals named in the letter are John Leonard, executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association who plans to retire this year, and Mary Jo Swalley, executive director of Southern California Swimming.
In the letter, Allard told Hinchey it was time to dismantle the “culture that has been responsible for the sexual abuse of countless minor swimmers. This needs to start with you publicly and permanently banning at a minimum” the eight individuals named.
Lawsuits filed last month represented a collective effort to get USA Swimming to purge its ranks of those previously identified as either allegedly abusing swimmers or not doing enough to stop it after learning of allegations.
The suits, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, named two former coaches from San Jose — Mitch Ivey, a one time U.S. Olympic and national team coach, and King. Also named in the suit are USA Swimming, its Southern and Northern California associations, and former U.S. national team director Everett Uchiyama, who like Ivey and King has been banned.
Some of the victims who sued had given detailed public accounts of the experiences over the years. Yet, they say, little was done to ensure the abuse wouldn’t happen to others.
Allard said in the letter to Hinchey that USA Swimming has a deeply embedded culture that “condones the criminal sexual behavior of coaches towards its underage athletes.”In an interview, Allard said, “I’ve seen only bandaids. I haven’t seen any real change in the leadership structure. It’s time to stop picking at the scab and start figuring out where the roots of the problem are.”