The swimmers said that they left a party at 4 a.m. and were robbed shortly thereafter. They were detained hours after officers attempted to seize the passports of both Lochte and another swimmer: Jimmy Feigen, whose whereabouts remain a matter of speculation, but who US officials now say is also cooperating with police in Rio.
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Judge Kayla Blank cited a statement made by Lochte and Feigen to police where they claimed they were picked up by a cab at a gas station near Club France.
Feigen is in Rio and said he’s cooperating with officials.
The video appears to show the four swimmers returning to the Olympic Village looking relatively relaxed, and in possession of high-value items that might be expected to have been taken in an armed robbery.
These included different accounts of how many assailants there were.
Lochte’s father told The Associated Press that his son had arrived back in the United States.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement Wednesday encouraging those involved to cooperate with Brazilian law enforcement. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance.
The USOC spokesman, Patrick Sandusky, said the committee is trying to gather further information to determine why the two swimmers were detained in Rio on Wednesday.
The action comes amid increasing tension between Brazilian authorities and the American swimmers over their account of the robbery.
News of the robbery broke Sunday, and confusion soon followed.
The G1 news site, which is part of Globo, reported that Bentz and Conger were detained for questioning and that Feigen had been taken in earlier while still in the airport. Feigen, 26, received gold for swimming in the heats of the 4×100 free relay, which was won by the U.S. In an interview USA Today Sports on Tuesday, Lochte said he was, in fact, robbed and that “he initially did not tell the U.S. Olympic Committee”.
On Sunday, Lochte told USA media the robbers had carried police badges when they pulled the taxi over. “He cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said get down and I was like, I put my hands up, I was like whatever. Until this goes in a direction where I can see it, I can’t comment”. That journey would normally only take around 30 minutes at that hour of day.
Lochte, though, gave interviews in which he described the incident in detail and Brazilian Olympic authorities were eventually forced to issue a public apology for the security slip-up. In the footage, Lochte jokingly hits Feigen over the head with his Olympic credential.
“It’s noticeable that the victims arrived back physically and mentally unshaken, even joking with each other”, the judge said.
Lochte is one of the most successful swimmers in history, with 12 Olympic medals and he once had his own reality television show in the US.
Jeff Ostrow, a lawyer representing Lotche, said swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger were taken off the plane.
The swimmers said the robbers were impersonated police officers by flashing badges. However, Lochte had already left Brazil.
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“Ryan left the country after his events, after fully meeting with the Brazilian authorities, the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation – everybody who wanted to meet with him”, Ostrow said. He is still in Brazil, according to NBC, though it was not immediately clear if he had been questioned by police. He wasn’t told to stay around or that [the authorities] had other questions, but we told them we were still available if they had further questions.
