Summary: An appeals court in Rio cleared Ryan Lochte of criminal charges.
Olympic bad boy Ryan Lochte will not face criminal charges, his lawyer said to NBC News on Friday. In August 2016, the swimmer filed a false police report in Rio de Janeiro, stating that he had been robbed at gunpoint at a gas station while on break during the Olympic Games. After an exhaustive investigation, police determined that the 32-year-old had actually made up the entire story.
“The guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down,’” Lochte lied last year. “I put my hands up, I was like ‘whatever.’ He took our money, he took my wallet — he left my cell phone, he left my credentials.”
Lochte and his partners-in-crime James Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, and Jack Conger were reprimanded by the U.S. Olympic Committee and ostracized by the Brazilian media. The then-bleach blonde was suspended for 10 months by the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming, and he was stripped of $100,000 in bonus money for the gold medals he had won at the Games.
Lochte said that he had “over-exaggerated” his gun-point story, which had initially made Rio look unsafe and unfriendly to tourists. Lochte admitted that he and his American teammates had stopped to use a restroom after a night of drinking and in a drunken state they had vandalized the gas station where they had taken a piss.
The Brazilian appeals court said that Lochte would not be criminally charged for the lie, and the court ruled 2-1 in his favor on Thursday, Lochte’s attorney Jeff Ostrow said.
“We are pleased that the court has finally dismissed the criminal prosecution against Mr. Lochte, while at the same time, appropriately recognizing that he committed no crime,” said Ostrow. “It has been a long year, but in the end, justice prevailed.”
The Brazilian appeals court said that Lochte lying on television was not the same as actually filing a false police report, a crime that comes with 18-months in prison in the city.
Lochte’s suspension ended on June 30th of this year, and he was supposed to swim in July but withdrew, claiming he was out of shape after the birth of his son. On Twitter, he said that he had learned from the ordeal.
“It’s been a long suspension but it’s over,” Lochte tweeted. “I’ve learned and became a better man from it.”
Lochte had also apologized last year after surveillance video disproved his prior story.
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