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A Florida judge excoriated the U.S. Center for SafeSport for perpetrating fraud against the court and intentionally withholding exculpatory evidence in a case involving a teen water polo player whose own complaint to the center resulted in her being arrested on her high school campus for assault.
The order this week from Seminole County Judge John Woodard — in a ruling the center described as a “stunt” intended to undermine the agency — officially erased any record of criminal proceedings against Kelsey McMullen, who was 18 when a SafeSport investigator turned over evidence to police after speaking to a witness in a case involving a girl McMullen had accused of bullying her.
Law enforcement arrested McMullen at her school and opened an investigation that took 14 months before the charges were dropped.
Woodard ruled that prosecutors received only partial information from the center as they looked into the case beginning in 2022, and that the center would not cooperate when law enforcement opened new cases against McMullen’s accusers and the center for reporting false information.
Though the order carries no penalty against the center, it nevertheless stands as a rare legal rebuke to the agency that opened in 2017 to combat sex abuse in Olympic sports.
The center called the order “a stunt designed to interfere in the Center’s ability to hold individuals accountable for sexual misconduct.”
It explained that it sent a letter to the court explaining it would not respond to subpoenas seeking sensitive information about claimants because the subpoenas needed to “be served through a Colorado Court so that they could be challenged in the appropriate venue.”
“The Order is without jurisdictional, factual, or legal basis and the Center is weighing its legal response,” it said in a statement. “The Center was not a party to this criminal proceeding. As such we were never notified, never appeared, and were never afforded an opportunity to present evidence or arguments to refute the false information provided by the lawyer to the court in this case.”
The court order said the center “perpetrated a fraud upon the court, the People of the State of Florida, the Sheriff’s Office, the State’s Attorney Office, and defendant;” “intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence;” and “acted in bad faith, intentionally, and with malice.”
McMullen’s attorney, Russell Prince, said “none of this is surprising to those that deal with the center.”
“These actions are consistent with a pattern of conduct that the center employs on a regular basis,” he said. “This time, they were finally held accountable according to commonly accepted standards of fairness and due process. Beyond that, the order is particularly harsh, pointed in the findings, and self-explanatory.”