Marty Nothstein pleads guilty in stalking case, gets year probation
He continues mental health counseling and can not have contact with victims
Marty Nothstein, once celebrated as an Olympic cycling gold medalist, sat stone-faced in a Lehigh County courtroom Wednesday and quietly acknowledged his guilt in a stalking case involving his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend.
Nothstein, 52, whose post-Olympic life included serving as a Lehigh County commissioner and an ambassador to the sport that brought him glory, pleaded guilty to one count of defiant trespass, a third-degree misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 12 months of probation. He also was ordered to continue mental health counseling and have no contact with the victims.
“My hope is for closure for all parties here,” said Lehigh County Judge Anna-Kristie M. Marks. “I imagine Mr. Nothstein’s actions were very frightening for the victims.”
Nothstein was accused in 2021 of stalking the woman, with whom he had a six-year relationship, and her new boyfriend. A criminal complaint alleged he engaged in a nearly yearlong campaign of harassment by driving past their homes, damaging their cars, sending anonymous letters with vulgar sexual references and attempting to smear the boyfriend with false accusations of sexual misconduct.
The woman, a cyclist who competed at the velodrome, and her boyfriend were identified in the complaint and in court, but The Morning Call is not using their names.
On Wednesday, Nothstein admitted that on March 22, 2021, he entered the woman’s home while she was at work and tried to access her computer. He acknowledged doing so when the woman, who received an alert while at work showing someone was trying to access the computer, confronted him.
Nothstein originally was charged with criminal trespassing, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of stalking and defiant trespass. The other charges were dropped under the plea agreement, which the victims agreed to out of a desire to put the case behind them.
“The victims have wanted to move on with this case for many, many months now,” said prosecutor Steve Luksa. “They want to move on. They want Mr. Nothstein to
move on.”
He acknowledged the victims are concerned it might happen in the future, but given that Nothstein has been in and is continuing treatment, “hopefully they can go their way and he’ll go his, and their paths will never cross again.”
Nothstein’s defense attorney, John Waldron, said his client also wanted to move on from the case.
“It’s dragged out for quite a period of time,” Waldron said. “He’d like to move forward and regain employment.”
Waldron, noting that Nothstein has been going to therapy and paid restitution to the victims, requested minimal probation, but the judge gave him the maximum term of 12 months. She noted that without the plea, he could have received up to 12 months in prison and a $2,500 fine.
Nothstein, who won the Olympic cycling silver medal in 1996 and the gold in 2000, was a Lehigh County commissioner from 2015 to 2019 and ran an unsuccessful campaign as a Republican for Lehigh Valley’s congressional seat in 2018.
A local cycling star nicknamed “Marty the Blade,” Nothstein was also director of the county-owned velodrome in Trexlertown until 2018, when he was suspended after the nonprofit organization that operates the facility became aware he was the subject of a sexual misconduct investigation, The Morning Call reported in August 2018.
After the report, Nothstein said he had been cleared of any wrongdoing by SafeSport, an independent organization created by Congress in 2017 to investigate abuse in Olympic sports. He later sued USA Cycling, alleging it damaged his reputation and invaded his privacy by revealing the investigation to a reporter. The case was dismissed.
In October 2021, Nothstein voluntarily dropped a suit in Lehigh County Court alleging The Morning Call, the nonprofit Velodrome Fund and its chairperson invaded his privacy by publicizing the SafeSport investigation. His attorneys, David Heim and George Bochetto, had filed a request to withdraw from the case, saying they had encountered irreconcilable differences with their client over how the case should proceed.