Judge orders Brazilian police to hunt US swimmers Ryan Lochte, James Feigen over ‘inconsistencies’ in robbery claim
Brazilian police were searching for Olympic gold medallists Ryan Lochte and James Feigen on Wednesday after a judge issued an order preventing the American swimmers from leaving the country until they clarified their accounts of how they were robbed at gunpoint.
Brazilian police were searching for Olympic gold medallists Ryan Lochte and James Feigen on Wednesday after a judge issued an order preventing the American swimmers from leaving the country until they clarified their accounts of how they were robbed at gunpoint.
After checks at Rio’s international airport, police sources said they believed Lochte had already left Brazil where he won a relay gold medal in the Olympic swimming competition that ended on Saturday.
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US media quoted a lawyer for Lochte, one of swimming’s most decorated Olympians, as saying his client had already returned to the United States.
Feigen, however, was quoted by the as saying that he was still in Rio de Janeiro.
Judge Keyla Blanc, of Brazil’s Special Tribunal for Fans and Major Events, on Wednesday ordered the seizure of the swimmers’ passports until they gave more evidence concerning the robbery, which fuelled fears over security at South America’s first Games.
A US Olympic Committee (USOC) spokesman said police had arrived at the Athletes’ Village on Wednesday and asked to meet the swimmers and collect their passports.
“The swim team moved out of the village after their competition ended, so we were not able to make the athletes available,” said USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky, adding that he could not confirm the swimmers’ location for security reasons.
If one or both of them have left the country, the judge would then consider whether to ask the swimmers to return to Brazil to give testimony or allow them to do so in the United States, judicial sources said.
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A spokesperson for the US consulate in Rio declined to answer specific questions on the case but said parties should work with Brazilian law enforcement in the investigation.
On his official Twitter account, Lochte said: “My hair is going back to its normal colour tomorrow”, in what appeared to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to changing his appearance. The swimmer competed in Rio with his hair dyed peroxide blond.
On Sunday, Lochte said he, Feigen and two other team-mates were travelling to the Athletes’ Village in a taxi in the early hours of the morning, after a party, when armed men carrying police badges pulled them over.
newspaper reported that authorities had requested a search warrant for the swimmers’ accommodation with the aim of finding Feigen’s mobile phone in order to identify exactly where the swimmers were on Sunday night.
Police on Wednesday issued an appeal for the taxi driver who was allegedly driving the swimmers at the time of the incident to come forward.
Police sources have said in recent days they have been unable to find the taxi driver or to corroborate any details provided by the swimmers.
The judicial sources said the judge in her ruling pointed to an inconsistency between Lochte, who had said only one man was involved in the robbery, and his team-mate, who testified that several men had robbed them.
The judge noted that video footage showed the swimmers returning to the Athletes’ Village physically well and joking with one another, and in possession of many of their belongings, including mobile phones and Olympic accreditation.
She also noted the swimmers had said they left a party at the French Olympic delegation just after 04:00am but security cameras showed them arriving at the Athletes’ Village at around 07:00am – a journey that would normally take around 30 minutes at that hour of day.
