Facing mounting criticism in 2008 for his organization’s handling of a decade old sexual abuse case, USA Gymnastics chief executive Steve Penny hired attorney Suzette Bewley to review the Indianapolis-based national governing body’s child sexual and physical abuse prevention and response policies.
USA Gymnastics’ Participant Welfare Policy, enacted in 2009, was based on a report by Bewley.
Bewley has played a leading role in shaping the sexual and physical abuse prevention, response and education policies of USA Gymnastics and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, according to a Southern California News Group review of hundreds of pages of USA Gymnastics, USOPC, U.S. Senate and legal documents.
Bewley worked closely with USA Gymnastics on athlete safety issues from 2007 to 2017, according to documents. She served on a USA Gymnastics medical task force with disgraced U.S. Olympic and national team physician Larry Nassar in 2012. She also worked for Baker & Daniels, USA Gymnastics’ longtime law firm, from 1998 to 2004. Bewley served on a USOPC working group on Safe Sport issues in 2010 and appeared at a USOPC seminar as a consultant to USA Gymnastics in 2012.
Bewley currently works as a top law clerk for the judge mediating disputes in USA Gymnastics bankruptcy case.
The judge, James M. Carr of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Indiana, was also a partner at Baker & Daniels from 1975 to 2012. He was appointed to the court in January 2013….
