FORMER USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny has been indicted by a Walker County grand jury for tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, in conjunction with the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case, the prosecutor’s office said Wednesday night.

Prosecutors said Penny was indicted Sept. 28 and arrested Wednesday in Gatlinburg, Tenn. He is being held there awaiting transfer to Huntsville, the county seat of Walker County, they said.

According to the indictment, Penny is accused of ordering the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch in Walker County, the former site of the USA Gymnastics women’s national training center, and one of the sites where female gymnasts say they were sexually abused by Nassar under the guise of medical care.

“The indictment further alleges that the removal of the documents was done for the purpose of impairing the ongoing investigation by destroying or hiding the documents,” the statement from the Walker County district attorney said.

Prosecutors say the documents were delivered to Penny at the federation’s headquarters in Indianapolis, and their current location is unknown.

“The Texas Rangers and the detectives believe that those records are material to their investigation and that the removal of the records by Penny prevented them from reviewing documents that would have helped in their investigation of Nassar as well as assisted with the investigation of other offenses that may have occurred at the Karolyi Ranch,” the release said.

Tampering with evidence is a third-degree felony under Texas law, punishable of two to 10 years in prison, a US$10,000 fine or both.

Penny, who at one point was one of the most powerful executives in the Olympic movement, resigned in March 2017 as federal investigators and state prosecutors in Michigan investigated allegations that USA Gymnastics allowed Nassar to resign his position with the federation without reporting the allegations against him to officials at Michigan State University, which also employed Nassar.(SD-Agencies)