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The U.S. Marshals Service took Steve Penny into
custody, and he was being held at the Sevier County Jail while
extradition proceedings to Texas were beginning.
A grand jury in Walker County, Texas, indicted Penny on Sept.
28, accusing him of ordering the removal of documents from the
Karolyi Ranch, the site of monthly training camps for the U.S.
women's gymnastics team.
It also was one of the sites where some 350 girls and young
women, among them Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman,
Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney, have said that team doctor
Larry Nassar molested them under the guise of medical treatment.
Nassar, who also was a team physician at Michigan State, was
sentenced to 40 years to 175 years in prison after pleading
guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ingham
County, Mich., in January.
The grand jury investigating Penny, 54, concluded that the
documents he ordered removed were delivered to him in
Indianapolis. Where those documents were taken next has not been
determined, according to reporting from USA Today.
The evidence-tampering charge is a third-degree felony, and it
could bring two to 10 years in prison.
"The removal of the documents was done for the purpose of
impairing the ongoing investigation by destroying or hiding the
documents," according to a statement from the Walker County
District Attorney's office.
"The Texas Rangers and the detectives believe that those records
... would have helped in their investigation of Nassar as well
as assisted with the investigation of other offenses that may
have occurred at the Karolyi Ranch," the statement read.
The arrest came one day after USA Gymnastics' interim president,
Mary Bono, announced her resignation after her hiring was
questioned by Biles, Raisman and others. The organization is
still seeking a successor to Kerry Perry, who resigned under
pressure in September.
Perry had replaced Penny, who resigned in March 2017.
--Field Level Media
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