An arbitrator has vacated a permanent ban against two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Steven Lopez, of Sugar Land, Texas, setting aside the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s finding that he violated its code of conduct for sexual misconduct involving a minor.
The decision issued by Jeff Kaplan on Monday, which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports, reinstates Lopez after the center had declared him permanently ineligible in September.
“He had been sanctioned for life based on a set of allegations,” said Howard Jacobs, Lopez’s attorney. “Those allegations were not proven, and so he’s no longer under any sanction.”
SafeSport spokesman Dan Hill cited the center’s policy in declining to discuss the specifics of the case.
In September, SafeSport found there was a “preponderance of … evidence” that Lopez sexually abused Nina Zampetti when she was 14. USA TODAY Sports does not typically identify victims of sexual assault, but Zampetti has given permission for her name to be used.
In his decision, Kaplan found that “the Center has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Lopez violated the SafeSport code by grooming NZ, touching her vaginal area and breasts and receiving oral sex from her in 2000.”
Lopez, 40, is a five-time Olympian with gold medals in 2000 and 2004 and a bronze in 2008. Considered the biggest star in his sport, Lopez has also won five world championships. Throughout his career he has been coached by his older brother, Jean, who also coached younger siblings Mark and Diana to medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Lopez testified at an arbitration hearing in Houston on Wednesday, and he brought five witnesses to testify on his behalf. SafeSport’s investigator was its sole witness at the hearing.
Zampetti did not testify at the hearing. Steven Estey, her attorney, said he provided her declaration to the center.
“I declined to be questioned by SafeSport because I don’t believe they are here to help us,” Zampetti said via text message with USA TODAY Sports. “They are only trying to help themselves. If I would have answered those questions I believe they still would have lifted the ban. I will just give my statement in real court when the day comes.”
Added Estey, “I’m not deterred. I’m going to be going forward on the civil side, and the truth is going to come out on the civil side.”
Zampetti’s family has been longtime friends of Lopez and his family, and she first met Steven Lopez, who is eight years older, when she was about 10. When Zampetti was 14, she told USA TODAY Sports that she was at the Lopez house when Steven Lopez asked her to take off her shirt and touched her breast. A short time later, he put his penis in her mouth and ejaculated.
Zampetti said she immediately told Steven Lopez’s sister, Diana, as well as another taekwondo athlete. She also told her sister, Connie, who corroborated Nina Zampetti’s account to both USA TODAY Sports and SafeSport.
“She has no discernible motive to fabricate a claim against Steven,” according to the SafeSport finding, “and, in fact, due to the close relationship between her family and the Lopez’s, her decision to reveal what occurred has been very difficult for her and has the potential to negatively impact long-standing personal and familial relationships.”
Steven Lopez denied engaging in any sexual activity with Zampetti while she was a minor and he was an adult.
Diana Lopez testified during the hearing, denying that Zampetti told her about an alleged sexual encounter with Steven Lopez.
Kaplan said there was “no evidence” to corroborate Zampetti’s allegations or outcry statements.
But, as in a similar case against his brother Jean, pending litigation seems to have played a role in the proceedings.
Both Steven and Jean Lopez have been under investigation for sexual misconduct for the last three years, first by USA Taekwondo and then by SafeSport. Five women, including Mandy Meloon and Amber Means, have filed a lawsuit against the Lopez brothers, the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Taekwondo and SafeSport. It alleges the women were victims of a sex trafficking operation, claiming the USOC and USA Taekwondo knew the Lopez brothers were sexual predators yet continued to send young women with them to camps and competitions across the world.
The center declared Jean Lopez permanently ineligible in April after finding him in violation of the SafeSport code for sexual misconduct and sexual misconduct involving a minor. SafeSport found that Jean Lopez had assaulted Meloon, Heidi Gilbert and a third woman with whom he had also engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with starting when she was 17.
But the center lifted the sanction against Jean Lopez in August pending an appeal. Estey told USA TODAY Sports that SafeSport attorney Joe Zonies had told him the center could not defend its lifetime ban of Lopez before an arbitrator unless the women testified in person.
Hill said in August and again Monday that the center allows for accommodation of witnesses, including allowing them to appear remotely and to limit cross examination to SafeSport’s attorney rather than the responding party.
But because of the pending civil litigation, Estey declined to have his clients testify at a hearing.
Zampetti also chose not to participate in the arbitration hearing, and Kaplan cited that in his decision to lift Steven Lopez’s ban.
Because Zampetti “chose not to testify, questions about her credibility are left unanswered. The arbitrator has not had an opportunity to observe her demeanor or question NZ about the information she provided to SafeSport, much of which is controverted. By contrast, Lopez appeared genuinely upset and was visibly emotional when talking about the allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Not only has his taekwondo career been jeopardized, but his family has been humiliated and embarrassed by what Lopez believes are false and malicious allegations. Lopez testified in a manner consistent with someone who is falsely accused. His outrage did not seem feigned or contrived.”
Estey said he proposed delaying the arbitration in the cases to allow for his clients to be deposed under oath. Estey said arbitration in Jean Lopez’s case is scheduled for later this month.
“The reality is if you can do it all at once, then you do it all at once,” he said. “We’re not opposed to giving testimony at all. We want to give the testimony, but it’s going to be a one-time deal. It’s not going to be multiple times.”
The lawsuit has put Meloon and Means’ complaints to SafeSport about Steven Lopez on hold.
Meloon, a bronze medalist at the world championships in 1997 and 2005, said she and Steven Lopez dated on and off for six years. In 2004, after a physical confrontation at Lopez’s parents’ home, Meloon said Steven Lopez followed her to her apartment, broke in through a window and sexually assaulted her. Meloon said Steven Lopez also physically assaulted her on several occasions.
Means, a former member of the junior national team, says she was drugged three times and that Steven Lopez had sex with her while she was unconscious on one of those occasions.
Kaplan’s decision noted that Lopez is the subject of another SafeSport investigation based on complaints from Meloon and three other women. Lopez asked the arbitrator to review it as part of this hearing, but Kaplan concluded he had no authority to interfere with an ongoing investigation.
