The American swimmers are subject to questioning and potential charges if police believe they gave false or misleading statements to authorities, which can carry up to six months in jail.
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(AP Photo/Mauro Pimentel). American Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz, left, and Jack Conger, center, leave the police station at Rio International airport early Thursday Aug. 18, 2016.
Marco Rubio’s office has contacted the Brazilian Embassy in Washington over the investigation into claims Ryan Lochte and three other USA swimmers were robbed in Rio de Janeiro.
Questions immediately facing United States authorities include how to best assist the three Olympic athletes still in Brazil, stripped of their passports and now under repeated questioning from police. “They were not victims of the crimes they claimed”, Civil Police Chief Fernando Veloso said during an afternoon news conference.
Lochte’s father told the AP by phone from his Florida home that his son called him Tuesday after arriving in the United States. It was not immediately clear if the organization planned to act.
According to the investigator, Lochte, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz, and Jimmy Feigen-who are all on the US men’s swimming team, broke a bathroom door at a gas station located in Barra da Tijuca, a Rio suburb, when they couldn’t open it.
The indictments follow assertions by Brazil’s police today that Lochte, Feigen and two other US swimmers who said they were held up at gunpoint in Rio were not robbed. The fourth swimmer, Jimmy Feigen, remains in Brazil, police have said. On Wednesday, Bentz, Conger and Feigen were detained in Rio while attempting to board a US -bound plane.
A Brazilian police source told ABC News that “one of the swimmers was seen on CCTV footage breaking down the door to the bathroom at the gas station and fighting with a security guard”. Ostrow said the video doesn’t show a complete picture of what happened, considering there is no audio.
However, according to an official directly involved in the case, there never was a robbery; instead, it was the athletes who allegedly caused the disturbance at a gas station in Rio.
The official says a few of the swimmers then pushed on the door and broke it. The four swimmers are also shown sitting on a curb with their hands up.
Another camera then shows the swimmers in a cab, when security guards arrive.
If Phelps really is done, now would be the time for Lochte to step into the spotlight and win new sponsors as one of the top swimmers on the US men’s team.
Shortly after the video surfaced, The Associated Press reported that Rio police confirm that two security guards did point guns at the swimmers. But he said the athletes wanted to leave, so paid 100 Brazilian reals (about USA $33) and $20 in U.S. currency and left.
We know that the swimmers were out drinking very late, and though there’s video of the gas station incident, it’s hard to discern how it started or anyone’s intent.
O Globo reported one of the swimmers tore down an advertising sign when they were asked to use a bathroom after urinating on the station’s wall.
Bentz, Conger and Feigen “are cooperating with authorities and in the process of scheduling a time and place today to provide further statements to the Brazilian authorities”, Sandusky said.
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“It became obvious fairly early that at least one swimmer had a motive to tell a story that was different from the real one”, said authorities.
