Judo official resigns amid abuse allegations

A high-ranking U.S. judo official resigned amid accusations that nearly 30 years ago he molested teenage competitors he coached.

Fletcher Thornton's resignation from USA Judo's board of directors took effect Friday, a day before The New York Times published a story about the allegations.

The governing organization for the sport announced the resignation on its Web site Saturday. A spokeswoman said Thornton was a referee at a tournament in Orlando, Fla., on Friday, but he did not participate Saturday and had left by Sunday.

A telephone number listed for Thornton in Middletown, Calif., where he lives, was disconnected.

Jose H. Rodriguez, the chief executive of USA Judo, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday that Thornton was not asked to resign, but that the move puts the spotlight back on the athletes less than two weeks from the start of the Beijing Games.

The Times' story said several young athletes in affidavits from 1981 accused Thornton of drugging and sexually molesting teenage competitors he coached in the late 1970s. A new accuser also surfaced in 2005, according to the report.

Thornton denied the allegations to the newspaper. In June, American judo medal hopeful Ronda Rousey drew attention to the issue by posting a blog about it.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has said it opened an inquiry into the allegations.

Rodriguez said a committee investigated the allegations in 1982 and 1983 and found that nobody filed a formal complaint, leaving the allegations unsubstantiated.

"You can't just keep bringing back the same affidavits year after year,'' he said. "USA Judo in 1982 and 1983 did do their due diligence and they gave everybody the opportunity to stand up. There is an appeals process.''

"There should have been an appeal filed if somebody was not happy with the hearing,'' he later added.

AnnMarie De Mars, Rousey's mother and a judo competitor when the allegations surfaced, said she roomed with one of the alleged victims mentioned in an affidavit during the 1982 U.S. Open in Colorado Springs, Colo. She said nobody from USA Judo tried to question her roommate.

"Nobody told us there were hearings,'' De Mars said, adding that she later learned from another alleged victim about the hearings. "Their investigation was, basically, they told the girls (who filed the affidavits and who lived out of state) if they wanted to fly to Colorado Springs and testify in person they could.''

De Mars said that Thornton tried to grope her at the tournament but she was reluctant to file a complaint.

"I was a kid, what am I going to do, go and ask the people who are doing this to handle your complaint?'' she said. "Nobody cared then. There were a lot of people thinking women shouldn't even be doing sports, let alone judo, and if you couldn't handle it, then you should stay home.''