Swimming coach Scott Hutchison was permanently banned by the U.S. Center for SafeSport Friday for “sexual misconduct involving a minor,” according to the organization’s online database.
The database provided no further details about the Hutchison decision. Earlier this year, former U.S. Olympic swimmer Ariana Kukors Smith alleged in a lawsuit that Hutchison sexually abused her and that USA Swimming officials covered up the abuse.
A message left with USA Swimming by USA TODAY Sports Friday night was not immediately returned.
Kukors Smith alleged in a lawsuit filed in Orange County (Calif.) Supreme Court that Hutchison groomed her from the time she was 13 while he was a coach with a club swim team in Seattle. She claimed in the lawsuit that Hutchison started sexually molesting her when she was 16.
"This lawsuit is about holding responsible those who knew there was underage abuse taking place and did nothing to stop it while going out of their way to protect my abuser," Kukors Smith said in a statement in May.
The lawsuit alleged that former USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus and others in the organization knew of the inappropriate relationship.
The allegations of widespread abuse were first published by the Orange County Register – the first outlet to report Hutchison’s lifetime ban – in February and led to the resignation of Susan Woessner, who had been the director of USA Swimming’s SafeSport program.
Woessner's resignation was due to an “intimately personal relationship” with Hutchison, who had been the focus of a sexual abuse investigation in 2010-11 overseen by Woessner. Pat Hogan, USA Swimming’s managing director for club development, also left the organization in February.
Hutchison has been investigated by federal authorities, who searched Hutchison’s apartment.
Source: Read Full Article