Swim coach Ken Stopkotte is in legal trouble again. Stopkotte, who is on probation for stealing $180,000 in donations to Nashville-area churches, served 3 years in prison in that case after being arrested by Mexican police.
According to the court records, federal prosecutors filed in the U.S. District Court in Dayton, Ohio on charges that Stopkotte used 37 counterfeit $20 bills at a Dayton Dragon’s minor league baseball game. He was detained by event security and found him in possession of 2 more counterfeit $20 bills that matched the ones received by vendors at the game.
According to the complaint, Stopkotte told Dayton Police (falsely, according to the arresting officer) that he traveled from Indiana to Dayton “to watch a Reds prospect pitcher.
The story continued:
“Upon arrival at the stadium, Stopkotte stated he had paid a ‘scalper’ $20.00 for a ticket into the stadium and purchased the ticket with a $100.00 bill. (At the time of his interview, Stopkotte possessed a total of $212,72, including 9 genuine $20 (bills), which he released to investigators for inspection. Stopkotte denied any involvement in uttering counterfeit currency in the stadium and also related he must have received the counterfeit from the ‘scalper.’ Stopkotte was also found in possession of seven Debit Cards bearing the name Donald Brush or Donny Brush. When asked about his possession of the Debit Cards, Stopkotte stated Brush was a friend of his and his lessor for his residence at 6117 South Shore Drive, Unionvile IN 47468. Stopkotte stated he received the Debit Cards in the mail at his residence addressed to Brush, intercepted and opened them, and placed his own funds on the accounts without Brush’s knowledge or permission. Stopkotte state he had “no excuse” for taking the accounts over.”
Brush is a former associate head coach at Indiana University and current High Performance Coach at Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania.
Detectives noted discrepancies in the story and 8 of the 21 vendors at the game that received counterfeit $20 bills identified Stopkotte as the person who spent the bills.
Stopkottoe then said “Wouldn’t I have more money on me if I had passed all of those $20s?” Police agreed, and re-searched Stopkotte, ultimately finding $647.72 of “genuine currency” on him, including $166 under the insert in his right shoe. Eventually, 55 more counterfeit bills in 2 plastic bags were discovered under a refrigerator near where Stopkotte was original detained. In total, 91 counterfeit $20 bills were found in the stadium and directly attributed to Stopkotte.
After the additional evidence was discovered, Stopkotte confessecd to the crime. His new explanation, per the official complaint:
“Stopkotte stated he was currently on Federal Probation for Money Laundering and Bank Fraud. Stopkotte stated he had served 37 months in federal prison in West Virginia following his arrest by the U.S. Secret Service in Nashville, TN. Stopkotte stated in early March 2018, he purchased approximately 200 counterfeit $20 (bills) on the Dark Web site “Dream Market.” Stopkotte stated he received the counterfeit mail a “couple days later” from a Columbus, Ohio postmark. Stopkotte stated he travelled (sic) to Phoenix, AZ approximately two weeks ago and attended a Hockey (sic) game where he uttered 15-20 of the counterfeit $20 (bills) to vendors. Stopkotte stated he then travelled (sic) to Dayton, OH and attended a Dragon’s Baseball Game and estimated that he passed 25-30 counterfeit $20 (bills) to vendors. He acknowledged attempting to hide – as police were approaching him – the above-mentioned two bags of counterfeit (bills) under the refrigerator also mentioned above. Stopkotte stated he worked alone and did not know the person that had manufactured the counterfeit on the Dark Web. Stopkotte stated he had hidden additional counterfeit $20 (bills) in the “cover for my boat” located in the rear of 6117 South Shore Drive, Unionville, IN 47468. These counterfeit (bills) were later discovered by (Secret Service) agents in Indiana.”
The charges of uttering counterfeit money and dealing in counterfeit money each carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Stopkotte was arrested on April 18th, and has had a public defender appointed in the case.
Stopkotte’s list of issues relating to fraud is long; he was given a 2-year ban on USA Swimming membership in 2010 after being found to have counted 31 disqualified swims as legal swims and entering those results into the SWIMS database.
Stopkotte at the time said that USA Swimming was targeting him for appearing on ABC’s 20/20 earlier in the year criticizing USA Swimming for covering-up sexual abuse by its member coaches.
He was also charged with theft later in 2010 for financial irregularities relating to his role as the head coach at both the Fishers High School and the Fishers Area Swimming Tigers. Those charges were later dropped and he filed a defamation lawsuit against Hamliton Southeastern School Corporation.
Stopkotte still does not appear on USA Swimming’s public list of individuals permanently suspended or ineligible for membership.
this guy was actually my coach at FHS; he really is one of those people that makes your skin crawl and blood boil all at once, even if you have no idea why at the time (now I have a little more idea why). I honestly don’t think he will ever stop doing whatever he wants and sincerely hope he gets the maximum sentence.
Not sure why the name and full address of Ken’s landlord – an apparent victim of Ken’s attempt at identity theft – is published and not redacted from this article.
“Ken’s landlord”, Donny Brush, is a certified USA swimming coach working with children and renting his house out to a convicted felon who has a USA swimming suspension. If my daughter swam for the “landlord” I would question his ethics, judgment and honesty for being in a financial relationship with such a person and I would not want the “landlord” near my 11 year old daughter. Would you?
Actually, Yes. Donny coached and interacted with all my kids, so I don’t question his ethics or honesty. That’s beside my point that his name and address were not redacted from publication because, despite his his misplaced judgement, he is still a victim of identity theft.
Sad all his sheep suppprters never looked past his falsified times to see he’s a thief who wasn’t interested in doing anything more than himself. Where are all of those sheepeople now?!
Crazy stuff…..it’s nice to have chutzpah, but man, a little ethics and common sense is, I don’t know, maybe called for? Someone get the memo to ol’ Ken.
Donny is the Man. Does USA swimming let a USA swimming coach (Donny) rent his house to a convicted criminal on the USA swimming “banned for life list”? I guess so! And Germantown Academy hired Donny!! Nice!
Hi Rick, USA Swimming probably doesn’t get involved in peoples’ financial affairs that have nothing to do with swimming, and as is referenced in the article, Ken Stopkotte is not on the ‘banned for life list’.
My bad. He was only suspended by USA swimming for 2 years for being a cheater. Maybe being a convicted felon will put him on the esteemed and slow to update “USA swimming banned for life” list. Probably not.
My favorite swim swam quote about Ken:
“Stopkotte was arrested by Mexican police in July of 2013 in Guadalajara for being in the country illegally. He failed to appear in court in April of 2013, and was on the run since”-SS 2014
I’d be thrilled if one of my age group coaches thought it was a good idea to rent his house to this guy.
I was at the game as a season ticket holder. I saw a lot of police activity at the game and vendors started using fraud pens in the third inning on all bills. I never saw anyone arrested and this hasn’t been in the local paper…
And we care about this because????
Sounds like he’s gonna spend a long time in prison. I don’t know the man, but he sounds like he was a good swim coach and a bad everything else. Some people just can’t stay out of trouble.
Does anyone on this board know him personally or his background? That would be interesting….
Super nice guy when I knew him 20 years ago… I guess you have to be nice to get close enough to people to screw them over.
Every encounter I have had with him was very pleasant. Always seemed like an upbeat and charismatic guy. A shame he felt driven to break the law.
I know he was very well liked by many as a swim coach. I dont like that people label others as “good” or “bad”. The man obviously is very troubled. This story is very sad…especially for his family.
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Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up…always seemed nervous or distracted. Easy to set off…