The U.S. Centre for SafeSport fired CEO Ju'Riese Colón on Tuesday in the latest and most visceral sign of a crisis that began after revelations the center had hired an investigator who would later be charged with rape. (More Sports News)
In her five-plus years at the Denver-based centre, Colon failed to fully untangle its struggles with long delays in processing an ever-growing caseload, or the stream of complaints from both accusers and accused who had been dragged through a resolution process that could take years
The U.S. Centre for SafeSport fired CEO Ju'Riese Colón on Tuesday in the latest and most visceral sign of a crisis that began after revelations the center had hired an investigator who would later be charged with rape. (More Sports News)
The centre told The Associated Press about Colón바카라s removal in an email. It brought an abrupt end to a tenure that began in 2019. She was hired to help the then-2-year-old centre, which was established to combat sex abuse in Olympic sports, bring its operation to full speed.
The centre said its board chair, April Holmes, would lead an interim management committee composed of board members while they search for Colón바카라s replacement.
바카라We are grateful for Ju바카라Riese바카라s leadership and service,바카라 Holmes said in the statement sent to the AP. 바카라As we look ahead, we will continue to focus on the Centre바카라s core mission of changing sport culture to keep athletes safe from abuse.바카라
Colón did not immediately respond to a text message left by the AP.
In her five-plus years at the Denver-based centre, Colón failed to fully untangle its struggles with long delays in processing an ever-growing caseload, or the stream of complaints from both accusers and accused who had been dragged through a resolution process that could take years.
No issue, however, illustrated the centre바카라s struggles more than its handling of former Pennsylvania vice squad officer Jason Krasley.
Krasley was hired as an investigator for the centre in 2021, but was abruptly fired last November when the centre learned he had been arrested for allegedly stealing money from a drug bust he was a part of while with the force.
The center made no public mention of that until AP reported about the connection Dec. 26. Then, two weeks later, Krasley was arrested again, this time for rape, sex trafficking and other crimes 바카라 an episode Colón to conceded was 바카라devastating바카라 for the center, which implemented changes in its hiring process.
The AP reporting led Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to open an inquiry into the centre바카라s handling of the Krasley affair.
In a letter to Colón, he wrote: 바카라Accusations of rape and other sex crimes against any SafeSport investigator are especially concerning given SafeSport바카라s mandate to protect athletes from similar abuse.바카라
It was an obvious conclusion made more jarring by the fact that he had to write it at all.
Colón바카라s response to Grassley last month revealed more about the case, including that the centre hired Krasley despite knowing he was the subject of an internal investigation. Grassley sent another list of questions to Colón, answers for which were requested by May 1. The centre said it plans to deliver the answers by the deadline.
After Krasley's arrests were made public, the centre reached out to people whose cases he handled, offering them counselling and a chance to share questions and concerns about the interaction with the investigator. Though the centre has said there was no reason to think any of Krasley's cases had been compromised, the outreach triggered another set of problems.
One person who was contacted, Jacqui Stevenson, told AP the notification retraumatized her and made her wonder if her case, which resulted in her abuser receiving a one-year probation, could end in his penalty being voided.
The entire episode brings into question the viability of this 8-year-old experiment borne out of the U.S. Olympic movement바카라s inability to deal with wide-ranging abuse crises at USA Swimming, USA Taekwondo and, most notably, USA Gymnastics involving now-imprisoned doctor Larry Nassar.
Fueled by Congressional hearings that included heart-wrenching testimony from abuse survivors, a consensus grew that an independent entity was needed to do the work the U.S. Olympic Committee and its sports subsidiaries could not.
Congress passed laws requiring most of SafeSport바카라s money (the centre reported nearly $24.8 million in revenue in 2023) to come from the organisations it oversaw. Despite its funding source, the centre insisted on independence. It placed big demands on the sports organisations, requiring resource-consuming annual audits and claiming the first right of refusal on cases involving their sports.
It led to a lack of trust but also a fear of speaking up at both the Olympic committee and inside the individual sports agencies, lest anyone be accused of undermining the centre, even if it wasn바카라t performing well.
Others, though, did speak up.
Among the most common complaints the AP fielded from dozens of accusers, accused, witnesses and attorneys who reached out over the past 24 months were that everything the centre did took too long and left too many people in limbo.
This was a symptom bedevilling an organisation that, at last count, was receiving more than 150 new reports a week but had fewer than three dozen full-time investigators to sort through them.
Colón insisted the centre바카라s mission to deal not only with Olympic-level sports, but all those sports down to the grassroots 바카라 a remit that covers some 11 million athletes 바카라 was the right one. She steadily pushed for more funding to beef up the operation.
Though disagreements over the centre바카라s mission and its ability to deliver, given the budget constraints, underscored a lot of the day-to-day wrangling about its future, no single episode undermined it the way Krasley바카라s hiring and firing did.
While the center defended its vetting process, critics viewed the hiring of an alleged rapist to investigate sex abuse as a devastating error for an agency handed such an awesome and delicate responsibility.
Grassley바카라s initial letter to Colón emphasised the low bar the centre had failed to clear when it hired the ex-cop.
바카라Claimants and respondents alike deserve impartial, fair investigators who have not been accused of sexual misconduct of their own,바카라 the senator wrote.