NEWS BRIEF The Ryan Lochte saga continues. On Thursday, Brazilian police asked prosecutors to file charges of providing false testimony against the U.S. Olympic swimmer, a crime that carries up to 18 months in prison.
Lochte told reporters that he and three teammates were robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro by men dressed as police officers, but their account seems to be untrue—or at least not as simple as that. Officers in Brazil found security tape of the moment when Lochte and swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and James Feigen stopped at a gas station, and instead of a robbery, they said the three swimmers vandalized a bathroom. When workers at the station confronted the group and asked them to pay for the damages, the swimmers became belligerent, and two security officers intervened and drew their weapons.
That’s how Brazilian authorities have framed it—but their version of the story was contested this week by an investigation by USA Today. The report told a more nuanced story, notably that footage officers claim shows the swimmers vandalizing the bathroom does not in fact show any vandalism. A witness in the article also said that because of the language barrier, the swimmers might have believed they were being robbed when officers, guns drawn, demanded they pay for damages.