Police have taken the passports of Bentz and Conger pending their testimony, O Globo newspaper said on its web site. However, Lochte’s father said Wednesday that his gold medal-winning son had arrived back in the United States before the edict. Feigen is believed to still be in Brazil. “I’m just trying to give Brazil what they need or what they want and get out of here, ” Feigen told USA TODAY Sports.
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The USOC says American swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the U.S.by Brazilian authorities Wednesday night, hours after a judge ordered gold medalist Ryan Lochte and teammate Jimmy Feigen stay in the country as police investigate their claim they were robbed during the Olympics.
“He was never asked to remain for further investigation or for any other objective after he met with Brazilian authorities after he gave a statement”.
“One sees that the supposed victims arrived with their physical and psychological integrity intact, even playing with each other, showing that there wasn’t any psychological shock inherent to such alleged violence”, the statement read.
Lochte went public with his account, saying he had had a gun put to his forehead during the robbery, when the swimmers’ taxi was pulled over. Their American cellphones, prized in the black market here, were inexplicably not taken. Braziilans have reacted with anger to what many perceived as a false account of a robbery and began conjecturing over what might have happened.
At first the International Olympic Committee denied that anything had happened.
Sandusky said that due to security protocols, he could not disclose the swimmers’ whereabouts.
Told several stories about Robbery that changed overtime.
Word of the robbery initially created confusion between Olympic and USA officials.
The jurist ordered the gold-medal U.S. swimmer’s passport seized Wednesday as she noted there were holes as big as the Olympic rings in his robbery tale – including a surveillance video showing him and three of his “heist-victim” teammates holding what looks like their supposedly stolen possessions as they returned to the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro.
The Games’ swimming competition ended Saturday.
The judge noted that Lochte had said a single robber approached the athletes and demanded all their money ($400), while Feigen’s statement said a number of robbers targeted the athletes but only one was armed.
Lochte’s story was called into question when footage emerged of the swimmers appearing to re-enter the Olympic Village with their wallets.
Lochte’s attorney did not return calls for comment.
The original version of Lochte’s story had the four swimmers leaving a birthday party at the French Club in Rio’s swank Lagoa neighborhood, where crime is relatively uncommon, well after midnight on Sunday morning. There are no charges facing the three men, the source said.
Police, who subsequently interviewed the swimmers, have yet to locate the taxi driver.
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Sergio Viegas, attorney for Bentz and Conger, told the Associated Press the two swimmers would not be allowed to leave Brazil until they testified about the incident. Lauer relayed that Lochte said he didn’t think police expressed any skepticism over his account. Furthermore, the judge highlighted the men’s “attitude” as they passed through security after the alleged stickup, which was captured by security cameras. Investigators claim that the x-ray machine at the village revealed the swimmers were in possession of the items they said were stolen, according to The Daily Mail.
