Brazilian police say they do not believe Ryan Lochte and others were robbed
Police discredit Ryan Lochte’s robbery story, say swimmers owe Rio an apology
(about 3 hours later)
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian authorities on Thursday accused Ryan Lochte of fabricating his story of being held up, along with three of his U.S. Olympic swimming teammates, by armed assailants four days earlier, an incident that has threatened to overshadow the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. But the authorities also acknowledged a gun was pulled on Lochte and his teammates by one of two security guards at a Rio gas station, where the swimmers apparently damaged property at the end of a late-night excursion.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian police Thursday accused swimming star Ryan Lochte of fabricating his story of being held up along with three of his U.S. Olympic teammates by armed assailants. But the authorities also acknowledged a gun was pulled on the foursome by a security guard early Sunday at a Rio de Janeiro gas station, where the swimmers apparently damaged property at the end of a late-night excursion.
A Brazilian police official said law enforcement authorities in Rio de Janeiro do not believe the American swimmers were robbed.
The police statement contradicting Lochte’s account, along with decision by Brazilian authorities to prevent his three fellow swimmers from leaving the country, threatened to overshadow the Rio Games and what has been a stellar performance by U.S. athletes, led by the American swimming team that ended its competition here last week.
“We knew it wasn’t robbery on Sunday after talking to two of them. The stories did not match,” Officer Marcelo Carregosa, second in charge at the station handling the case, told the Washington Post. “Ryan was very evasive and he did not give details.”
“No robbery was committed against these athletes,” Fernando Veloso, chief of the Rio de Janeiro police investigative division, said during a packed news conference Thursday afternoon. “They were not victims of the crimes they claimed.”
U.S. swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, who had been pulled from their U.S.-bound flight Wednesday, met with investigators Thursday and, according to the Associated Press, refuted Lochte’s claim that the group was held up by armed assailants.
The police account came as Team USA swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, who were pulled off their U.S.-bound flight Wednesday by Brazilian authorities, were questioned about the incident at a police station. According to Veloso, one of the two confirmed to investigators that Lochte’s account had not been altogether true.
While Lochte left Brazil on Tuesday, Bentz, Conger and teammate Jimmy Feigen remained behind in Rio de Janeiro, blocked from departing the country as Brazilian authorities continue to probe the alleged incident. Bentz, Conger and Feigen had legal counsel and were being supported by officials from the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. consulate in Rio, according to a USOC spokesperson.
[Brazilians express outrage as swimmers’ story unravels]
The Daily Mail, a British news outlet, reported, citing Brazilian police, that Lochte and the other swimmers damaged a gas station bathroom in the West Rio suburb of Barra de Tijuca and refused to pay for the damage until a security guard waved a gun at them and demanded payment. Brazilian news outlet O Globo reported, also citing police sources, that Lochte and his teammates urinated on the gas station’s building and vandalized the property.
Lochte, one of the most decorated U.S. Olympic athletes, was in the United States, having left Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, but Bentz, Conger and Jimmy Feigen remained in the city, having had their passports confiscated while the authorities complete their investigation.
A surveillance video posted on O Globo’s website appeared to show the swimmers damaging a bathroom door. It also shows the four swimmers being led away from the bathroom by employees and then, via a different surveillance camera, forced to sit on the ground with their hands raised.
No charges have been filed against the swimmers — and the potential charges of falsely reporting a crime and damage to property would likely not preclude the swimmers from leaving the country — but the incident has set off a firestorm locally. Brazilians have reacted with anger and indignation at an apparently false crime report that only served to boost the perception of Rio de Janeiro as a lawless, chaotic city that was unprepared to host an Olympics.
[British Olympian robbed at gunpoint in Rio]
Many Brazilians believe Lochte’s initial story preyed upon that reputation.
Lochte initially said that he and his teammates were robbed by a group of men posing as police officers who pulled over their taxi and demanded money.
“I’m very aware of the chaos of the city, of the violence, of all the Brazilian problems,” said Tati Leite, a 40-year-old film producer in Rio de Janeiro. “Taking advantage of this, to hide misbehavior, I felt offended.”
In Brazil, however, outrage is mounting over the possibility that the American swimmers lied. The sense of indignation is heightened by the bad publicity Rio has received during the Games. The city has complex feelings about its reputation as a center for crime whose streetwise citizens are more than willing to scam each other.
Veloso, the Civil Police chief, said Lochte and the others owed Cariocas — the local term for Rio de Janeiro natives — an apology for having “stained” the city “for a fantasy.”
“I think it is false,” said Lucas Alves, 24, an under-manager of the Ipiranga gas station in the city. “Everyone thinks of Rio as the place of robberies and this happens. People in Rio are annoyed about this. They receive visitors well and this happens. It’s a horrible thing.”
As the American swimmers left the police station Thursday evening, they were swarmed by a crowd of journalists amid shouts of “liars” by some, in English.
“Rio de Janeiro asks Mr. Lochte to not come back to the city,” Cpl. Anderson Valentim of the Rio Military Police said. “People with bad characters are not welcome.”
Just after 8 p.m., Rio time, Thursday, attorney Sergio Riera said Bentz and Conger had been given authorization to leave Brazil by the special Olympic court. “They are on their way to the airport,” Riera said.
Paulo Sotero, the director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, said that the incident “reinforces negative stereotypes on both sides.”
There was no immediate word as to the fate of Feigen.
“The American stereotype in Brazil of arrogance, and among Americans, the stereotype of Brazil as [a place of] absolute violence and lawlessness,” he said.
Rather than an armed robbery at the hands of assailants who pulled over their taxi and identified themselves as police, as Lochte originally claimed, the incident appears to have stemmed from a drunken pit stop at a gas station bathroom in the West Rio neighborhood of Barra de Tijuca, near the Olympic athletes’ village, at around 6 o’clock Sunday morning.
[Internet takes Ryan Lochte’s mess, turns it into memes]
[Just who is Ryan Lochte?]
Sotero said the Brazilian Embassy in Washington has been bombarded on social media with negative comments since Brazilian authorities chose to hold the swimmers in Rio.
Surveillance footage from the gas station appears to show at least one of the swimmers — who completed their Olympic competition on Saturday — pull off the metal door to the bathroom. The gas station’s owner told the Brazilian news outlet Globo that the swimmers urinated on the wall.
“Making a false statement to authorities is a serious offense there or here,” Sotero said.
In the video, released by Brazilian police, gas station employees observe the athletes then escort them out of the bathroom. In another clip, from a different camera angle, the athletes quickly seat themselves on the ground and raise their hands, as if ordered by a person with a gun.
Lochte, 32, is the second-most-decorated male Olympic swimmer in history, behind U.S. teammate Michael Phelps. His gold medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay in Rio de Janeiro represented his 12th overall Olympic medal, and his sixth gold. Bentz, Conger and Feigen also won one relay gold apiece in Rio.
Veloso confirmed one of the security guards produced the weapon to “contain” the swimmers so they could not leave without paying for the damage. “The firearm was used in a situation where they were contained. When they were contained the firearm was put away,” he said.
Lochte, who departed Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and was safely in the United States, according to his attorney, said as recently as Wednesday night, in an off-camera interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer, that he stood by his original story.
If the police account is true, it would mean Lochte lied about portions of the incident, for reasons that are unclear. His attorney, Jeff Ostrow, did not immediately return a telephone message at his Fort Lauderdale office Thursday. The day before, Ostrow said the incident happened “exactly the way Ryan described it” under oath to Brazilian police Sunday. “They were robbed at gunpoint — the way he described it,” Ostrow said.
“I wouldn’t make up a story like this nor would the others — as a matter of fact we all feel it makes us look bad,” Lochte said, according to Lauer’s account of his interview. “We’re victims in this, and we’re happy that we’re safe.”
But Lochte’s account has changed at least twice. He apparently denied that any incident at all had occurred when first asked about it by a U.S. Olympic Committee official, who was responding to media accounts of a robbery attributed to Lochte’s mother, Ileana. The denial led to a bizarre series of events Sunday, in which an International Olympic Committee spokesperson said the reports of an alleged robbery involving Lochte were “absolutely not true,” attributing the information to the USOC, then later pivoted and apologized to Lochte and the others for issuing the initial denial.
[Meet Mario Andrada, who may just have the toughest job at the Games]
[Chronology of events since Lochte gave his initial account]
I n his original account, Lochte said the swimmers used a gas station restroom and were robbed afterward by two men with guns and badges. Thursday, ABC News reported a security camera caught one of the swimmers breaking down a door at the gas station and fighting with a security guard. ABC cited a Brazilian police source.
Lochte eventually provided a detailed account of the alleged incident to NBC in an on-camera interview, saying the assailant claimed to have been a police officer, demanded the four swimmers hand over their money and wallets and pressed a gun to Lochte’s forehead when he initially refused. The shocking story made global headlines, underscoring the widespread perception that the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics have been beset with problems of crime and violence.
Multiple news outlets reported Thursday that the quartet’s story was falling apart. According to the Associated Press, which cited anonymous police sources, Conger, a three-time All-Met swimmer of the year from Rockville, Md., and Bentz have already told authorities that the robbery story had been fabricated.
But Brazilian authorities began to raise doubts about the account, saying there was no evidence of an armed robbery, and producing video surveillance footage of the swimmers returning to the Olympic athletes’ village in a seemingly calm, even jovial mood.
At his daily press briefing, IOC spokesman Mario Andrada had a different take on the situation. “Let’s give these kids a break,” he said. “They had fun. They made a mistake. Life goes on.”
By Wednesday, as doubts about the original account grew and as the other swimmers were blocked from leaving the country, Lochte, from the safety of the United States, altered his account slightly during an off-camera interview with NBC “Today” host Matt Lauer. This time, Lochte said the taxi had pulled into a gas station, instead of being stopped by the assailants, according to Lauer, who spoke on NBC’s Olympics telecast Wednesday evening. Lochte also backed off earlier claims that the assailant put a gun to his forehead.
That attitude isn’t shared throughout Rio de Janeiro. TV Globo and the G1 news site reported Thursday that there was an incident, but not a robbery, involving the American swimmers. A security guard at the gas station in question said the four swimmers arrived in a taxi at 6 a.m. Sunday. He recognized Lochte. Security was called by the manager after he found the damage to the restroom door, soap dispenser, toilet paper holder and sign.
Lochte, 32, was one of the most celebrated and visible American athletes in Rio this month, a major figure in his sport, a four-time Olympian and a centerpiece of NBC’s marketing push heading into the 2016 Games. A gold medal in the men’s 4x200-meter freestyle relay gave him six career Olympic gold medals, and 12 overall, the latter figure ranking behind only U.S. teammate Michael Phelps among male swimmers in history.
“According to the security, the swimmers were aggressive, altered and clearly drunk,” G1 reported. The security officer pulled a badge — it is not clear what kind, but many police officers in Brazil moonlight as security. Two of the swimmers fled into the street and the guard pointed his weapon at the other two. Helped by a person who spoke some English, the Americans offered $20 and 100 Brazilian real to repair the damage.
Feigen, 26, made his second Olympic appearance in Rio, while the 20-year-old Bentz and 21-year-old Conger — the latter a three-time All-Met swimmer of the year from Rockville in suburban Washington, D.C. — were first-time Olympians. All three won their first Olympic gold medals in last week’s swimming competition, helping the United States dominate the medal tables, with 33 overall, including 16 golds.
On Thursday at the Shell gas station near the beginning of the West Rio suburb of Barra de Tijuca, which was the site of the incident, a flimsy metal bathroom door showed signs of damage. A handwritten sign in Portuguese declared it “interditado” — closed off. “Please don’t go past, “ implored a note underneath.
Following the end of the swimming competition Saturday night, Bentz, Conger, Feigen and Lochte left the athletes’ village for a party at France’s hospitality house on the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon. They left between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., according to a spokesman for Club France, and went to another “community.”
A manager who would only give his name as Márcio said the sudden attention to the station had taken staff aback. “The police were already here. We can’t say anything else,” he said.
After a three-hour gap that remains unexplained fully, the swimmers’ taxi pulled into a Shell gas station on Avenida Armando Lombardi at around 6 a.m. Sunday.
Separately, British Olympic officials confirmed that one of their athletes was the victim of a robbery early Tuesday. The team did not identify the athlete, who was reported safe, or provide any details of the incident, but it prompted officials to warn team members not to go out at night in Rio or wear distinctive “Team GB” gear identifying them as British Olympians. The Guardian newspaper reported that the athlete was robbed at gunpoint.
Veloso presented a possible motive for the deception, saying two of the swimmers had some involvement with two girls at the party there were leaving and may have wanted to disguise the fact.
“We can confirm there has been an incident of theft involving a Team GB athlete returning to their accommodation,” a British Olympic team spokesman said in a statement. “All members of our delegation, including the individual concerned, are accounted for, and are safe and well.”
“The first information came from a driver who took two young women who left the event. These young women . . . had made out with the swimmers,” said Veloso. “[They] had a reason to tell a story that wasn’t true.”
Bentz and Conger were pictured by Brazil’s TV Globo entering a police office at Rio de Janeiro’s international airport with their carry-on luggage, but they did not comment to a reporter. The O Globo newspaper reported that the swimmers had boarded United Airlines Flight 128 to Houston and that two representatives from the U.S. Consulate and one from the USOC had arrived at the airport to accompany them.
When the swimmers reached the gas station, they broke a mirror, a door and a soap dispenser, Veloso said, which attracted the attention of the employees. The swimmers got into their taxi to leave, but the employees asked the driver to wait for police to arrive.
Earlier Wednesday, a Brazilian judge ruled that the passports of Feigen and Lochte should be seized after discrepancies emerged in their accounts of what transpired in early Sunday, after the four athletes left a dance party at the Club France official Olympic hospitality venue.
One of the two security guards working at the gas station pulled a gun, according to the Veloso, who added it is common for police officers in Brazil to work second jobs as private security. An unidentified, English-speaking person translated the employees’ claims to the swimmers that they were expected to pay for the damage. One of the swimmers produced a $20 and 100 Brazilian real — worth around $31 — and they left before police could arrive. One of the security guards told investigators that Lochte appeared intoxicated.
[Ryan Lochte says he had cocked gun pressed to his forehead during robbery]
At no point, Veloso said, was there any attempt to extort the swimmers.
Judge Keyla Blanc de Cnop, from a special magistrate court set up for big sporting events, ruled that there were “possible divergences” in the versions of the robbery that the swimmers gave police.
In an Olympics full of moments of athletic brilliance — by Phelps and Katie Ledecky in swimming, by Simone Biles in gymnastics and Usain Bolt in track, among others — the Lochte affair has dominated headlines for the bigger part of a week, and even the Rio 2016 organizers seem to wish it would simply go away.
In a statement released on the court’s website Wednesday, Blanc de Cnop said that in Lochte’s testimony to police, he said the athletes were stopped early Sunday by one robber who demanded all their money: $400. Blanc de Cnop said that Feigen, however, told police that the athletes were surprised by multiple robbers but that only one was armed.
Asked if he expected an apology from Lochte, to cancel out the one the Rio organizers issued to him in the wake of Sunday’s news, Mario Andrada, spokesman for Rio 2016, said none was necessary.
Security footage published Wednesday by the Daily Mail showed the men arriving at Rio de Janeiro’s Athletes’ Village appearing unfazed after the alleged incident. Brazilians have reacted with anger to what many perceived as a false account of a robbery and began conjecturing over what might have happened.
“Let’s give these kids a break,” Andrada said. “Sometimes you take actions that you later regret. Lochte is one of the best swimmers of all time. They had fun. They made a mistake. Life goes on.”
Lochte’s lawyer Jeff Ostrow told The Post that his client was already back in the United States.
Jerry Brewer and Sally Jenkins in Rio de Janeiro and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.
“Ryan left the country after his events, after fully meeting with the Brazilian authorities, the State Department, the FBI — everybody who wanted to meet with him,” Ostrow said. “He made himself available and provided the Brazil police with a statement. 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. He was planning on leaving, and he left. I don’t know what they’re trying to do down there. If they need to get in touch with me, we have always been fully cooperating. Nobody has reached out to me. Nobody has reached out to Ryan.”
Ostrow also said that the incident happened “exactly the way Ryan described it” under oath to Brazilian police and that he believes Lochte’s account of the incident to the police was the same as the one he told on NBC’s “Today” show.
“They were robbed at gunpoint — the way he described it,” Ostrow said.
The State Department acknowledged the developments Wednesday night.
“We have seen media reports that two U.S. citizen athletes were detained,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Due to privacy considerations, we do not have any further information to offer. We refer you to Brazilian authorities for more information about this case.”
News of the robbery broke Sunday, and confusion soon followed. A spokesman for the International Olympic Committee initially said the report of a robbery was “absolutely not true.” The spokesman later reversed himself, apologized and attributed the erroneous denial to information the IOC had been given by the USOC.
Lochte later told USA Today that he and the other swimmers did not immediately tell the USOC about the incident because “we were afraid we’d get in trouble.”
[Ryan Lochte says he was robbed. The Rio police aren’t so sure.]
The swimmers had been at a birthday celebration and dance party at Club France, an Olympic hospitality venue beside the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, with Thiago Pereira, a Brazilian swimmer, and Pereira’s wife, Gabriela Pauletti. Pereira and Pauletti left the party before the Americans, who told police that they caught a taxi at a nearby gas station.
Lochte told NBC that he and three other swimmers, including Feigen, were robbed when their taxi was stopped. The others were made to lie on the ground, but Lochte said he refused.
“And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead, and he said, ‘Get down,’ and I put my hands up. I was like, ‘Whatever,’ ” he said.
[Ryan Lochte tweaks robbery story in NBC interview]
Another doubt highlighted by the Brazilian judge concerns the time at which the swimmers reached the Athletes’ Village. The footage obtained by the Daily Mail shows them passing through a security check just before 7 a.m. — at least four hours after they were supposed to have left the party. In the footage, Lochte jokingly hits Feigen over the head with his Olympic credential.
“It was perceived that the supposed victims arrived with their physical and psychological integrity unshaken, even making jokes with each other,” the judge said, according to the court statement.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Feigen, still in Brazil, declined to comment when contacted by the newspaper.
“I can’t talk right now,” Feigen said. “I’m still in Brazil, and [an interview] is going to have to wait.”
Jerry Brewer in Rio de Janeiro and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.
