“The case was apparently dropped by Safe Sport even before it went to arbitration.”
Sounds like their thorough investigation was missing something.
Most of the posters on the other thread should go back, read what they wrote, and be ashamed of themselves.
It doesn’t make what was stated by the victim was not true, it just means the evidence wasn’t enough to support a lifetime ban. Waiting to see more from reliable media before making further judgments.
Due to the way this system operates, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is no further detail reported unless one of the parties involved decides to tell their story. People will just stick with whatever opinion they formed when he was accused.
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Kathy Hobstetter says on the COTH FB article that his attorney will be making a statement later today including the SS letter. That will be interesting.
How can that be? SS must have been very confident in their investigation to hand down the ultimate penalty.
I imagine they are probably eager to try and clear things up after so many months. Hopefully there will be some clarity.
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I won’t be holding my breath waiting for the apologies from posters who accused me of “attempting to undermine SS” for pointing out that the accused does not receive an independent adjudication until the arbitration phase or from those who called me a “pedophile supporter” for saying that dressage riders who clicked “like” on Dover’s post ON MCDONALD should not be accused of being “pedophile supporters”.
Pretty sure he was on the interim list pending arbitration. That doesn’t mean SS was wrong it just means the arbitrator didn’t find that he’s a current threat to children and that the penalty was incorrect.
I don’t think the interim list is used for cases that have been decided, but are pending arbitration.
Interim suspensions are used when the respondent is considered a current risk while the SS investigation is going on, and he was not on the interim suspended list prior to the lifetime ban.
He received a lifetime ban from SS. However, even though the ban was effective immediately, the ban was still subject to appeal.
Didn’t the story say that the ban was dropped by SS before the appeal even started?
I find it unlikely that the case was dropped before arbitration, because dropping the permanent ban at this time is what an arbitrator would have done, if he was not deemed an ongoing threat to children. There may also be other circumstances like the complainants retracting their statements because they were quietly outed or maybe they died of COVID or got killed in a motor vehicle accident or trampled by a herd of wild buffalo or who knows what. Without any statement from SS about what happened, there is nothing that can be corroborated to support his own statement of innocence.
Keep in mind that the allegations are from his early 20’s and not his 30’s or 40’s, so they would really need something more recent that established a consistent pattern of behavior to fully back the punishment of a permanent banning, especially without any involvement from Law Enforcement. Because his business and that of his wife are tied to youth riders, a temporary ban would not be appropriate, considering the long amount of time that it can take to investigate these old-time cases, as any temp sanction could easily expire before such an investigation is complete. SS may come at him again in the future, if they get more complaints against him.
He had started the appeal process immediately. You apparently only get ten days to make an appeal, so nobody would lollygag if they were confident about their innocence. We don’t know if SS actually investigated him (formal resolution) or simply issued the permanent ban (informal resolution) based on what was presented to them in the allegations, but without any actual statement from SS, there’s nothing but speculation outside of the circle that SS and BM were in.
Safe sport isn’t just for equestrian sports. That’s why you got the push back.
You only get 10 days to decide if you will appeal, but the appeal does not necessarily happen within 10 days. Either side can ask for a continuance.
Once the ban is announced and the respondent says he will appeal, it is not unusual for there to be continuances due to additional reporters coming forward.
I’m not familiar with the distinction between a “formal” vs “informal” resolution. As I remember what was reported by SS, they had completed their investigation and having found the allegations credible, had issued a lifetime ban, subject to appeal.
At the time he was placed on the list with a lifetime ban, the appeal had not yet happened, of course, but I don’t see anything “informal” about it.
I know that SS isn’t just for equestrian sports.
I have no idea why your perception that I was unaware of that somehow explains the “pushback” (euphemism for the day) that I got.
Good news!
SS didn’t report anything about their investigation. They simply issued the ban. Every bit of information about what is alleged to have happened came from leaks or was released through Bob himself. If there were several women who came forward against him at once, as the leaks claim, they likely would have found it prudent to issue a permanent ban very quickly, given that he and his wife run their respective businesses in the same location and both deal with youth riders there and throughout the country. We don’t know what the timeline is for his SS complaint, beyond the time between his sanction and when it was lifted, so we don’t know if there was a full investigation or simply a complaint and cursory information gathering, followed by a punishment. The first is formal and the second is informal. Both are considered acceptable under SafeSport code.
Do you ever participate in this forum other than to answer for sexual abusers?
Just because a respondent is not deemed a current, ongoing threat, that does not imply that a lifetime ban will be dropped. If evidence of serious misconduct in the past is upheld in the appeal, the respondent can receive a lifetime ban even if everyone acknowledged that he was not an ongoing threat. I don’t agree that they necessarily need “something more recent” to support a permanent ban. If all the allegations are from decades ago, getting solid evidence is more difficult, but if the evidence is there, long ago misconduct is enough to support a ban.
Remember that Jimmy William’s received a posthumous lifetime ban from USEF.
