Three More Sex Abuse Suits Against USA Swimming Involving Ivey, Uchiyama & King

Six women say are suing USA Swimming for failing to protect them from abuse by now-banned swim coaches Mitch Ivey, Everett Uchiyama and Andy King.

The Orange County Register reports that the six women have filed three separate lawsuits against USA Swimming, believed to be the first suits filed under a new California law extending the statute of limitations for lawsuits over past sexual abuse.

The six women say that USA Swimming, former executive director Chuck Wielgus, and other swimming officials were aware of predatory behavior by the three coaches, but refused to address it, allowing the women to be abused. The suits name USA Swimming and its Southern and Northern California associations.

The survivors of sexual abuse say the culture that allowed them to be abused “continues to exist within USA Swimming,” according to The Orange County Register.

News outlets typically don’t publish the names of survivors of sexual abuse. But three of the women have agreed to the use of their names, and are quoted in The Orange County Register‘s story. All three  of those named survivors of sexual abuse will speak at a press conference this afternoon.

King, Uchiyama, Ivey

We’ve previously reported on abuse by all three coaches, as well as their lifetime bans from the sport of swimming.

Debbie Denithorne, now Debra Grodensky, was 12 when King began sexually assaulting her at swim meets. She says that when she was 16, the 37-year-old King asked her to marry him, causing her to ultimately quit the sport. King was charged with 20 counts of child molestation and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The lawsuit says King’s sexual misconduct was already “well known within Northern California swimming” by the time he began coaching Grodensky in 1980.

Tracy Palmero swam for Uchiyama in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She says Uchiyama groomed and sexually abused her when she was between the ages of 14 and 17. Uchiyama had become the U.S. National Team Director by 2006, when Palmero’s father fought to have Uchiyama banned from the sport. Though Uchiyama was fired and banned, Palmero’s father says the firing and ban remained behind a non-disclosure agreement.

Two years later, Palmero’s father discovered that Uchiyama had found a way around his ban, working as a director of aquatics at a country club just five miles from USA Swimming headquarters. And a report from the Southern California News Group found that not only did USA Swimming know about Uchiyama’s new job, a USA Swimming official had actually given Uchiyama a glowing recommendation, failing to inform the country club about Uchiyama’s ban.

Uchiyama’s ban wasn’t publicized until USA Swimming started publishing its list of banned coaches in 2010.

Suzette Moran swam for Ivey as a teenager. She says Ivey went into her hotel room at a meet when she was 16 and had sexual intercourse with her, impregnated her during that year, and then told her “it was her problem to deal with it.”

The lawsuit says by late 1987, USA Swimming knew Ivey had been in an intimate relationship with Moran when she was a minor. Ivey was fired at the University of Florida in 1993, but wasn’t banned by USA Swimming until 2013, when Moran came forward, criticizing USA Swimming for closing its investigation into Ivey without even trying to contact her.

King, Uchiyama and Ivey are all banned for life from all Olympic sports, appearing on both USA Swimming’s permanent ban list and the U.S. Center for SafeSport database of banned individuals.

CA Law Extends Statute of Limitations

Last fall, California passed a new law expanding the statute of limitations for childhood victims of sexual assault. Previously, victims had three years from the discovery of the abuse to file a lawsuit, or until the victim turned 26. The new law has upped the statute of limitations to five years from the discovery of the abuse or until the victim turns 40. The law also suspends the statute of limitations for three years, allowing victims of any age to bring lawsuits for a three-year period.

All six victims are represented by Bob Allard, who has represented numerous abuse victims in lawsuits against USA Swimming, most recently Olympian Ariana Kukors Smith, who settled her suit in March. A few months earlier, a jury found USA Swimming not negligent in another Allard suit over former Stockton Swim Club coach Shunichi Fujishima, though the suits against the swim club and coach ended in a settlement.

We’ve reached out to USA Swimming for comment on the lawsuits. The organization says it will have a full statement after the press conference this afternoon.

Update: USA Swimming’s statement is below:

“We are aware of the information publicly released today in California. We fully support survivors of sexual abuse along their healing journey. USA Swimming’s Safe Sport program continues to work with prominent health and education experts to provide meaningful member resources and SwimAssist funding to those in need. The organization and its current leadership remain committed to providing a safe environment and a positive culture for all its members.

“The three named offenders have long been on USA Swimming’s list of Individuals Permanently Suspended or Ineligible for Membership due to the allegations of misconduct from the 1980s and 1990s, and the U.S. Center for SafeSport has recognized and honored our bans.”