Ryan Lochte Has Now Been Charged for Filing a False Robbery Report
Things have definitely taken a turn for the worse for Ryan Lochte. We’re talking super-duper bad kind of turn for the worse. In case you need a refresher about his totally embarrassing international incident at the Rio Olympics, he went on a drunken pee-fest in a gas station bathroom, got into a confrontation with security, lied about the entire sitch and claimed that he was held up at gunpoint (feel free to take a moment to let that all sink in again). After seemingly getting off easy, now it looks like Ryan might be facing more serious consequences than expected.
After facing a totally disappointed nation back home and losing multiple sponsorships, things seemed to be smoothing over for the Olympic swimmer when news started buzzing that he might be appearing on the next season of Dancing With the Stars. Whether that will actually happen now may hinge on the fact that the Brazilian police have just announced they’re charging Lochte with filing a false police report. Whoa.
As if his actions that night weren’t bad enough (and the days following when he decided to lie his pants off), it turns out that Ryan had actually gone ahead and filed a police report claiming that he and the other US swimmers — Gunnar Bentz, James Feigen and Jack Conger — had been robbed at gunpoint. Filing a false report of a crime is a crime in itself. Oh, Ryan.
Along with this, the International Olympic Committee’s ethics commission will be notified of the indictment, which puts Ryan’s medal in danger. Oh yeah — he could lose his gold over this. The IOC doesn’t mess around with this sort of stuff.
At this point, Ryan needs to decide whether he’ll head back to Rio to deal with this legal trouble, although even if he stays stateside, he can still be tried in absentia. There or not, under Brazilian law, Ryan faces a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison for filing a false report. Or he could get off by paying a hefty fine and turning over his medal. We’ll just have to wait and see.
What do you think will happen in this now criminal case? Tweet us @BritandCo!
(h/t ET; photos via Matt Hazlett, Mike Comer, Cindy Ord/Getty)
