Ex-USA Gymnastics head arrested in connection with Nassar case

Former USA Gymnastics President and CEO Steve Penny was arrested after being indicted by a Texas grand jury on charges that he tampered with evidence in the investigation of former USA Olympics doctor Larry Nassar, according to media reports.

Penny faces 2 to 10 years in prison, The Associated Press reported. Penny was arrested Wednesday in Tennessee and will be extradited to Texas, the Walker County district attorney’s office in Huntsville, Texas, said in a statement, according to the AP.

{mosads}Penny held the top post in USA Gymnastics during a period in which Nassar was accused of assaulting hundreds of young girls.

Penny is accused of ordering the removal of documents related to Nassar’s activities at a ranch in Texas after learning that authorities were investigating the training center, the AP reported. The  Karolyi Ranch was being managed at the time by USA Gymnastics.

Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to criminal sexual misconduct counts. He had been accused of sexually abusing more than 150 women and girls who were under his care.

In a separate case, Nassar was sentenced to 60 years after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. 

Nassar was also charged in June with sexually assaulting minors in Walker County. 

Penny stepped down from his position at USA Gymnastics last year. In June, he declined to testify at a Senate subcommittee hearing about the sexual abuse of young Olympic athletes, invoking the Fifth Amendment.