Attorney Gary Jewell’s complete statement on behalf of the Karolyis

In May of 2017, Martha Karolyi's deposition was taken in a lawsuit filed in the State of California against her, her husband Bela Karolyi, USA Gymnastics (USAG) and others. The deposition was taken for the limited purpose of determining what contacts Martha, a resident of Texas for 30+ years, had with California between 1996 and 2011 so as to determine whether Martha could be forced to defend herself in the courts of California under the U.S. Constitution.

During this limited purpose deposition, Martha was asked a leading question in regards to whether she was "ever advised by any USAG official in or around June of 2015 that they had received a complaint that Dr. Nassar had molested a national team gymnast at the Ranch?"

Multiple objections were made to the question given its irrelevance to sexual assaults alleged to have occurred in prior years. After the objections were made for the record, Martha answered the question (without it being repeated back to her) and she mistakenly answered "Yes, I did."

By the time of the deposition in May of 2017, it had already been reported in the media that Steve Penny, the then CEO of USAG, first learned of allegations of sexual assault in June of 2015 and that Penny reported the allegations to the FBI in July of 2015.

As detailed in Martha Karolyi and Bela Karolyi's lawsuit against USAG and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), filed in April of 2018 in Walker County, Texas, Martha did receive a phone call "in or around June of 2015" (likely July) from Steve Penny informing her that Larry Nassar would no longer be with the USAG program because of treatment concerns. This phone call occurred shortly before the "2015 Secret US Classic" in Chicago on July 25, 2015.

Martha was never informed during this particular phone call that the "treatment concerns" raised by gymnasts were actually sexual misconduct allegations, nor was any particular athlete identified. Martha was respectfully asked not to discuss the phone call with others, focus on the preparation of the team and understood that the matter was being investigated.

Martha later learned from the Vice-President of Women's Program at the July gymnastics event that the investigation was on-going and was assured that the "treatment concerns" involved a medically recognized treatment.

It is not uncommon in a deposition for a deponent to misunderstand a question or misspeak. Martha misunderstood the question and misspoke. It was not realized until much later that she was not precise with her earlier testimony.

Thus, Martha is now taking the opportunity to correct that misunderstanding and make clear that, although she did receive a phone call from Steve Penny during the summer of 2015 regarding Larry Nassar leaving the USAG program, she had no knowledge of allegations of sexual misconduct by Larry Nassar until the summer of 2016.

The facts alleged in Martha and Bela's lawsuit against USAG and USOC are the correct timeline. Martha (74-years-old at the time of her first deposition of her life) merely misspoke when answering the question in her deposition.

We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and look forward to proving the facts alleged in the Karolyis' lawsuit at a public trial in Walker County, where her credibility will be solely judged by a jury — as opposed to counsel or the media.