U.S. Olympic gold medal bicyclist and candidate for Congress Marty Nothstein emphatically denied Friday any truth to sexual misconduct claims he learned about in February.
Appearing alongside his attorney, Nothstein held a news conference outside Bethlehem in response to an article by The Morning Call about investigations into the allegations. He described the toll the allegations have taken on him personally, including his termination as executive director at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center -- the Velodrome -- in Upper Macungie Township.
The claims concern two female athletes, or possibly one and a purported witness, from the year 2000, according to Nothstein and his attorney, William G. "Bill" Chadwick Jr., who is based in Washington, D.C.
USA Cycling received the tip last October and forwarded it to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a taxpayer-backed group formed last year to investigate sexual misconduct claims against Olympic athletes. Law enforcement authorities in Lehigh County also opened, and quickly closed, an investigation.
"An anonymous tipster planted a clearly false allegation in hopes of triggering an investigation," Nothstein told the news conference attended by more than a dozen supports of his Republican candidacy. "Tipsters then turned around and planted a story with the media that I was under investigation.
"The accusation is false. There are no accusers in this case. The women identified to investigators deny that any misconduct occurred."
'Meritless' claims, DA says
Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin's office on Friday stated: "An investigation into an allegation pertaining to Mr. Nothstein was conducted by the Upper Macungie Township Police Department and reviewed by this office. The allegation was found to be meritless, and the matter was closed."
Nothstein and Chadwick were critical of both Friday's article and SafeSport, and said a defamation lawsuit may be filed after the November election.
"This kind of allegation could be resolved in an afternoon with a phone call," Chadwick said, "and here we are nine months out after the allegation was made and SafeSport refuses to close the case, as far as we know.
"I say as far as we know because ... the investigator stopped returning phone calls and emails back in June."
Attorney William G. "Bill" Chadwick Jr. gestures toward his client, Marty Nothstein, the U.S. Olympic gold medal cyclist and Republican candidate in the race for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, during a news conference Aug. 17, 2018, in Hanover Township, Northampton County, called to refute claims of sexual misconduct made in October 2017 and which led to investigations. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com)
Nothstein was placed on unpaid leave at the Velodrome on Feb. 9, the day he learned the anonymous tip was in the hands of SafeSport, which is based in Denver. The Valley Preferred Cycling Center board that leases the Lehigh County-owned facility later terminated him.
A call for comment to the center was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.
SafeSport responded to a request for comment by saying its policy is to "not speak to matters."
"We do this to protect the integrity of the process and the confidentiality of the individuals involved, including the reporting parties," a spokeswoman, Kate Brannen, said in an email. "It's something we do not deviate from in accordance with best practices for victim-centered response and professionalism in investigations."
The nonprofit authorized by federal law noted, however, that since opening in March 2017 through June 2018, it had received 1,037 reports of sexual misconduct allegations, issued 289 sanctions and made 149 athletes permanently ineligible for competition. In addition, more than 400,000 individuals have completed SafeSport's online training geared toward preventing sexual abuse.
In a testament to the personal toll the allegations and investigations have taken on Nothstein, his wife Christi issued the following statement Friday: "As a wife, a mother, an athlete, and as a woman, I am asking that the people who are lying to destroy Marty's campaign for Congress also understand that they are destroying people's reputation and lives. They are hurting several families by dragging them into this fabricated scandal.
"I am asking the political opposition to stop hurting my family."
'Serious allegations,' Wild says
Nothstein is running in the Nov. 6 election to represent Pennsylvania's new 7th Congressional District covering Lehigh, Northampton and southern Monroe counties. He and the Democratic candidate, Susan Ellis Wild, are also candidates in a special election the same day to fill the unexpired term of former U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent in the current 15th Congressional District. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court earlier this year redrew Congressional boundaries after ruling they were too partisan.
Wild, in a statement Friday, said: "Like the people of Pennsylvania's 7th District, the first I learned about this situation was today's Morning Call report. These are serious allegations involving a partially taxpayer-funded organization where a suspension, investigation and termination were made. There are clearly questions to be answered, and I hope that the full facts of this incident are made available to the public in a timely and thorough manner."
Libertarian Tim Silfies is also on the ballot for the 7th District on Election Day.
Nothstein won a silver medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, then won the gold at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
He said Friday he was familiar with the women in 2000 who are said to have made the claims against him. He recalled living "the life of a monk" back then when training and competing for Olympic gold.
He and Chadwick asserted Friday they know of no other women making any sexual misconduct claims against him.
Nothstein and Chadwick, a former prosecutor in Philadelphia and inspector general under former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey, said the two women signed notarized affidavits that they were not the victims of sexual misconduct perpetrated by Nothstein.
"I repeatedly offered to show these affidavits to the reporters" at The Morning Call "and they refused to even look at them," Nothstein said.
Terry Rang, interim editor-in-chief for The Morning Call, responded Friday to the Nothstein campaign's offer as follows:
"During a phone call in May, Marty Nothstein's campaign consultants Dennis Roddy and Mark Harris said they would disclose to us the identity of two women whom they said they believed but could not prove were the subjects of the SafeSport investigation and provide statements by them that the allegations were unfounded.
"However, Roddy told our reporters that the campaign would only produce the women's statements with two conditions: The Morning Call could not print or quote from them, or interview the women to verify the veracity of their statements. We could not accept the statements under those conditions."
Damage seen to other accusers
Nothstein asserted that in coming to light, the baseless allegations provide a disservice to real victims of sexual misconduct.
"This anonymous smear was designed to destroy my livelihood, my candidacy and my reputation," he said. "I'm not going to allow this to happen. It has affected my livelihood. Disrupted my campaign. And caused pain and worry in my family.
"But this isn't just about me. These kinds of acts don't just damage one candidate. They corrupt the entire political system by basically rigging elections by smear. And they certainly do no favors to the victims of real acts of sexual misconduct. When you use enough clearly false smears, you make it harder for women's voices to be heard."
Nothstein maintained that the "women were not listened to" and that The Morning Call reporters "declined to so much as meet with them or examine their statements" that generated the anonymous tips to USA Cycling and law enforcement.
"Again as a prosecutor, as an inspector general, people come in all the time with allegations," Chadwick said Friday. "Everybody's making allegations against everybody and prosecutors have to sift through and decide what they're going to follow and what not.
"And when an allegation is made anonymously it has the lowest possible credibility because the person making it wants to remain in the shadows."
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.