Teenage girl alleges sexual abuse by ex-Olympic swimming coach, accuses USA Swimming of neglect in preventing it.
Lawsuit Filed Against Individuals and Organizations for Tacitly Enabling a Child Rapist
The lawsuit submitted by Amanda Le in the US District Court, Massachusetts, targets various individuals and companies who enabled a known pedophile to work as a youth swimming coach. This perpetrator, Joseph Bernal, allegedly abused Le over a span of 6 years, from 2008 to 2014 while she was a member of his swim club.
The lawsuit, totaling 33 pages, accuses Bernal of being a former coach for both Fordham and Harvard and a key member of the US coaching team at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. He also founded the Bernal's Gator Swim Club and coached Le from 2006 to 2010.
Bernal's abuses were brought to light in February 2016, leading to a lifetime ban from USA Swimming. The abused individual, in this case, was Amanda Le. The lawsuit notes that Bernal's name appears on the USA Swimming website as one of those permanently suspended or ineligible for membership due to "sexual misconduct."
USA Swimming issued a statement in 2016 claiming they were committed to the safety and welfare of their members, having a zero-tolerance policy for violations of their code of conduct. The organization has yet to comment on the current lawsuit.
CNN reached out to both USA Swimming and Bernal's estate for comment, while an attorney for the other defendants named in the lawsuit has been contacted but has yet to respond.
Bernal passed away in October 2022, according to an obituary.
This lawsuit comes amid multiple allegations of abuse and misconduct within the national bodies governing elite-level youth sports, such as USA Swimming. For instance, in 2021, USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee agreed to pay $380 million to the victims of Larry Nassar, a former Olympic doctor who abused girls over several decades.
Jon Little, Le's attorney, expressed his belief that the system encourages these types of abuses. He stated, "What happened to her is sad, but far from uncommon. People like Larry Nassar and Bernal, who produce Olympic medalists – as long as they produce medals and money, they can literally rape children. The system is designed to protect the producers. Getting rid of Nassar and Bernal does not change the problem."
Little mentioned that Le filed the lawsuit to help other children feel less alone. "She felt alone back then, but she doesn't now."
What The Lawsuit Claims
According to the lawsuit, Le joined Bernal's Gator Swim Club of New England (BGSC-NE) at the age of 13 and remained a member until she was 18. When she was 15, Bernal, in his mid-60s, kissed her after practice, initiating a series of escalating sexual encounters.
The lawsuit alleges that Le suffered panic attacks and believed they were solely due to the stress of swimming. However, she was also coping with the consequences of the sexual abuse, although she was unaware of it at the time.
On various team trips, Le slept in Bernal's hotel room, and from her junior year of high school into her senior year, he picked her up from school and took her to his house for sexual encounters, according to the lawsuit.
During her college years from 2011 to 2014, Bernal impregnated Le and paid for her abortion, the lawsuit alleges.
The abuse continued even with some adults being aware of it. Le's mother found her diary that detailed the relationship with Bernal, which led her parents to show it to another coach from Bernal's Gator Swim Club. However, the coach did not report the incident to law enforcement and failed to protect Le, according to the lawsuit.
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that USA Swimming was aware of complaints about Bernal's inappropriate behavior with minor female swimmers before Le started participating in the sport.
The lawsuit charges Bernal, USA Swimming, and other defendants with violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and accuses Bernal of sexual abuse and the others of negligence.
Bernal had been a defendant in an earlier lawsuit, filed in August 2021, in which Kimberly Stines accused him of a "five-year campaign of systemic emotional and sexual abuse" starting in 1976. USA Swimming was not named as a defendant in that lawsuit.
The litigation against both Le and Stines is ongoing, with a trial expected in late 2025 or early 2026. Little, representing both women, said the system failed both of them. "The system failed her [Stines] and now she feels guilty that there is an Amanda Le."
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The lawsuit also names USA Swimming as one of the defendant organizations, as they failed to prevent or address these allegations against Bernal while he was a member and coach within their organization.
Despite Bernal's death, the lawsuit continues to shed light on the horrific experiences of multiple victims and brings attention to the need for greater accountability and protection within USA Swimming and similar organizations.
