Team USA weightlifter Jennyfer Roberts reported being raped, but Safesport process only added to her anxiety

Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories investigating SafeSport’s process for handling athlete complaints of sexual abuse. The second part will look at the appeals process, once an investigation by SafeSport is complete.

In the weeks and months after Team USA weightlifter Jennyfer Roberts filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Center for SafeSport in March 2017 alleging U.S. and Pan American champion weightlifter Colin Burns of raping her, she continued to be haunted by what had happened to her.

She was depressed and anxious and had a hard time focusing. Her training suffered.

Dealing with SafeSport, Roberts said, only added to her anxiety.

“The whole thing was really frustrating,” she said.

A six-month Southern California News Group investigation into the case found that Burns was allowed to compete in major international competitions as well events where Roberts participated while he was under investigation for sexually assaulting her, even though some athletes facing similar or lesser allegations have been suspended by SafeSport.

SafeSport, created and financed by the U.S. Olympic Committee, was formed as a response to a culture that has failed to keep athletes safe and has jeopardized the USOC’s continued existence as a governing body. The SCNG’s unprecedented look behind the scenes of SafeSport’s investigative, adjudication and appeals processes also found that SafeSport asked Roberts to adjust her schedule at major national competitions to avoid contact with Burns at the events.

SafeSport, after an 11-month investigation, determined that Burns, a former Mission Viejo resident, committed “non-consensual sex acts” against an incapacitated Roberts in her hotel room while they represented the U.S. at a pre-Olympic test event in Rio de Janeiro in April 2016. Burns was banned on February 14, 2018 for 10 years from participating in any activity sanctioned by the USOC, USA Weightlifting or any other national governing body. He was also suspended for an additional two years for lying to investigators about having sex with Roberts and about being in her hotel room on the night of the alleged rape.

Burns, SafeSport said, “began having vaginal intercourse with (Roberts) without her consent while she was incapable — by her sleep and intoxication — of consenting.”

In a lawsuit against Burns, USA Weightlifting and the USOC, filed in Orange County Superior Court this week, attorneys for Roberts allege that Burns raped and sodomized her.

Burns appealed the SafeSport bans, insisting he and Roberts had consensual sex. A three-member arbitration panel agreed with SafeSport that Burns lied repeatedly to investigators.

“He lied, and lied again and again,” the arbitration panel wrote in its ruling document. “This is not acceptable.”

Yet the panel overturned the 10-year ban in a July ruling that SafeSport had not proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Burns had engaged in non-consensual sex.The arbitrators also reduced his suspension for lying from two years to 18 months.

Burns can resume competing and coaching at USA Weightlifting-sanctioned events on August 13.

Burns declined to be interviewed when contacted by SCNG.

“I have been advised that the Safe Sport rules are such that cases are entirely confidential, and anyone involved in a case generally cannot speak without violating those rules,” Burns said in an email. “I therefore cannot comment on any Safe Sport matter. I also not that I reserve any rights to protect my reputation regarding any false statements published about me.”

An attorney for Burns issued a similar statement to SCNG.

SafeSport officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

SCNG’s policy is to not reveal the names of victims of sex crimes. Roberts, however, agreed to be identified.

Hundreds of pages of previously undisclosed confidential SafeSport memos, letters and reports as well as email diary entries and interviews reveal an investigation by SafeSport that was marked by delays and often a lack of responsiveness to Roberts’ questions and concerns, adding to the uneasiness and uncertainty of a woman already dealing with the trauma of an alleged rape.

The documents and interviews show how SafeSport told Roberts the investigation would wrap up first in April 2017 and then again in July 2017 only to see the case drag on for months more. It sometimes took SafeSport officials days, even weeks to respond to Roberts’ questions and concerns if they responded at all. Meanwhile Burns competed and USA Weightlifting executive director Phil Andrews, who knew of the complaint, even congratulated and joked with Burns on social media.

Deciding to report

The pre-Olympic event in Rio was Roberts’ international debut. The former diver at Northeastern University in Boston had been in weightlifting barely two years yet she was already viewed within USA Weightlifting as potential Olympic or World Championships team member.

“It was cool I was someone who had been identified who could (make those teams),” Roberts said. “It was cool to be on their radar.”

The Rio event was a dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games four months later. The weightlifting event featured athletes from 13 nations.

“That was a big deal for me, the big stage,” Roberts said.

But from the moment Roberts returned from Rio it was clear to those closest to her in the New England gym where she trained that was something was wrong.

“Before all this she was a really positive person, happy, outgoing, a very vibrant person,” said Matt Tapply, a training partner, in a phone interview with SCNG. “After she got back, she wasn’t the same person. She wasn’t in a good mood.”

Within hours of arriving back in the Boston area she confided in training partner Nate Cuffrey.

“It felt terrible,” Roberts said. “The day I got back and I went to the gym, I couldn’t not talk about it and I talked to Nate about it.

“Nate Cuffrey was the first person I saw and I was like this thing happened and I explained it to him. I almost like needed confirmation that that is what happened. So I explained it to him without saying, ‘Hey, this is rape’ and he just looked at me and said, ‘So you were raped?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and I just kind of lost it.”

On her second day back from Brazil, Roberts twice left the training area sobbing, retreating to the women’s locker-room.

“I literally lost my (expletive) during a training session,” Roberts recalled.

The second time Tapply followed her into the locker room. Roberts also confided in Tapply that she had been raped by Burns on Team USA’s last night in Brazil.

“I was in disbelief,” Tapply said. He also recalled thinking, “This is unacceptable. We can’t just sit here and let this person get away with this.”

Tapply said he shared the conversation with his and Roberts’ coach Dave Lussier, who suggested Roberts report Burns to USA Weightlifting, the sport’s national governing body.

But it would be another 11 months before Roberts was ready to share her story with USA Weightlifting. Roberts’ delay in formally reporting Burns was not uncommon, according to sexual violence experts.

“Delayed reporting is very much the rule than the exception. It is in most cases overall victims do not make a report,” said Laura Palumbo, National Sexual Violence Research Center communications director. “Sexual violence is the most underreported violent crime and for those who do make a report, generally, it is not immediately after an assault. So disclosure is very much a process. It’s not unusual for a survivor to tell some trusted friend or family, someone who they are very close contact to share with them first. They may share just very basic information about what happened. They may not go into a lot details and over time as they process their experience they may share more detail and more information and through that have the support encouraged to make a report. Unfortunately, some individuals when they’re going through that process of disclosure, it’s part of what discourages them from making a report because it may not feel like they’re being believed in their life.”

After nearly a year of reliving that night in Rio several times a day, Roberts was finally ready.

“I just kept being that sad person and I had a very difficult time training. Even training just became even that much more draining and depressing to me because now I’m going to keep training so the next competition I go to I’ll see him too,” Roberts said in an interview with SCNG. “I couldn’t rationalize that in my head. Why would I devote all this time to compete in a meet where I’m going to have to go see this guy that raped me?

“It set me into this panic tailspin every single practice. So I’m going through this mental game every single time I’m in the gym, not to mention all the other times. That used to be my me time, was training. So one day I just knew I wasn’t going to get better at weightlifting or in life, I wasn’t going get better period if I didn’t do something.

“So one night, I was like I’m doing this and I wrote it out and I sent it. …I sent it to USA Weightlifting. SafeSport, I didn’t even know what that was at that time.”

It was March 5, 2017.

“I’ve tried to call you on a few occasions but found that I lacked the courage to even leave a voicemail. At this point I think an email is the best I can do,” Roberts began her email to Lance Williams, USA Weightlifting’s associate executive director.

“I’d like to report a violation of the USAW Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics from when I was a member of the Rio Test event team in April 2016. On our final night in Rio, April 10th, Colin Burns came into my hotel room in the middle of the night and raped me. I had never met him prior to this trip, and I haven’t spoken with him since.

“I’ve been afraid to come forward as there was drinking involved, on my part and others on the team, but we were all over 21. But my biggest fear is whether anyone will take me seriously, or if instead I will be blamed for these actions. I do hope none of the following gets anyone else in trouble (from what I can see drinking is not against the code of conduct for those over 21, and all of us were done competing at the time), and also that you will agree this is unacceptable behavior that should result in action.”

Roberts told Williams in detail about the alleged incident and then touched on the impact that night in Brazil and the prospect of continuing to see Burns at competitions had on her.

“I’m worried about what seeing him will do to my mental health,” she wrote. “I thought I would be able to deal with it, but the thought that he could potentially do this again if he were to make another international team (or even worse has he done this before?) has plagued me and I know that coming forward with this is the right decision no matter how difficult it is for me, and trust me it is very difficult. I really never thought anything like this would ever happen to me, I never thought I’d find myself in this situation. I always thought I’d be strong enough to fight someone off, that no one would mess with me, that I could handle myself. But I also never expected it to be someone I knew, let alone someone that was supposed to be my teammate. The more time that passes, the more I struggle with it; and I can no longer keep watching him in this sport knowing that I could have and should have said something.”

Investigation begins, but no suspension

Williams responded quickly.

“USAW will take this matter very seriously,” Williams wrote in a March 6, 2017 email responding to Roberts’ initial complaint against Burns. “Not only are the actions you described code violations but they are a crime as well.”

Yet Burns continued to represent the U.S. at competitions including the 2017 World and Pan American championships during the investigation, even after SafeSport had determined that he  had repeatedly lied to investigators.

Under SafeSport guidelines, the center can take interim measures including suspension while an investigation proceeds that “may be appropriate to ensure the safety or well being” of the reporting party, other athletes and persons. In an interim suspension the accused party “is prohibited from participating in any capacity in any activity or competition authorized by, organized by, or under the auspices of the United States Olympic Committee, the national governing bodies recognized by the USOC, and/or a Local Affiliated Organization of a national governing body recognized by the USOC pending final resolution of the matter.”

There are currently at least 41 individuals from 11 different sports under interim suspension by SafeSport while under investigation for misconduct, according to the SafeSport records.

Within hours of Roberts’ report, SafeSport began an investigation into the matter. Roberts was interviewed via Skype by SafeSport senior investigator Kathleen Smith on March 10.

But SafeSport’s projection that its investigation would be completed by April 2017 proved premature. Thus started a pattern where SafeSport officials would give Roberts an estimated completion date followed little no or contact and then acknowledge the center needed more time when Roberts emailed or called for updates.

Roberts’ sense of urgency grew throughout the spring of 2017 with the USA Weightlifting Championships in Chicago (May 11-14) and likelihood of seeing Burns again approaching.

“This email is a follow-up to our phone conversations last week and earlier today. As we discussed, we would ask that you avoid any unnecessary or intentional contact with the other party at the National Weightlifting competition this weekend,” Smith wrote to Roberts in a May 10 email, the day before the competition opened. “This would include not attending portions of the event where the other party is competing. Thank you for your expressed agreement to these terms.”

By the USA championships, Burns had already lied twice to SafeSport investigators, according to SafeSport documents. In a March 22 interview he denied both entering Roberts’ room and having sex with her. “He accused her of making up the whole incident because he rejected her advances earlier that night,” according to a SafeSport report.

Burns again denied going into the room and having sex with Roberts in a May 2 interview with investigators. In that interview, Burns “suggested (Roberts) must have misidentified the person who she had sex with,” according to a SafeSport report.

Burns continued his denials in a May 22 interview with SafeSport, but when investigators “confronted him with evidence” that placed him in Roberts’ hotel room he “changed his story, admitted the sexual encounter but claimed that it was all consensual,” according to the report. Burns told investigators that he initially lied about the encounter because he was afraid his girlfriend would find out.

While Burns focused on the World and Pan American championships, Roberts continued to ask SafeSport for updates.

The case continued into the summer and followed what for Roberts was an all too familiar pattern.

“A decision will be made soon,” Smith wrote in a July 11 email in response to Roberts’ request for an update.

Facebook post congratulates Burns

USA Weightlifting executive director Phil Andrews, who had been briefed on the allegations against Burns, even shared on Facebook a post congratulating Burns on his performance at the Pan American Championships in late July 2017. Burns won two gold medals and a bronze at the competition.

“Nice job Colin Burns capturing our first Pan American Championship of the week,” Andrews wrote.

Andrews also joked on social media about a photo of a grimacing Burns in mid-lift at the Pan Ams.

“This will be the credential for the Worlds,” Andrews cracked, referring to the photo for Burns’ athlete credential for the World Championships held in Anaheim later that year.

Roberts, who primarily wanted to avoid Burns and have her complaint upheld, was outraged to see Andrews planning future events with him on social media.

“Infuriated. So angry. Every descriptive word for anger,” Roberts said when asked about her reaction to Andrews’ social media comments. “I’m just so mad especially seeing Phil posting on Facebook congratulations for winning he’s going to use this picture for his World badge. So you’re expecting him to be competing when you read my initial email? How could you possibly do that? How could you possibly say that?”

Andrews said in an email that USA Weightlifting contacted its outside legal counsel and SafeSport chief operating officer Malia Arrington within two hours of receiving Roberts’ complaint in March 2017.

“A conference call was held with Mr. Burns later that day where it was agreed with both USA Weightlifting and Mr. Burns that the US Center for SafeSport would take jurisdiction in this case, especially considering the conflict of interest that existed,” Andrews said.

“After that time, any and all decisions regarding Mr. Burns participation in sport were taken wholly and exclusively by the US Center for SafeSport, and not by USA Weightlifting.

“At no time after the initial report, did I personally speak with Ms. Roberts on Mr. Burns’ participation requests, and to the very best of my knowledge nor did any other individual. However, I cannot speak on behalf of the US Center for SafeSport. We did provide the US Center for SafeSport information on selection impacts based upon participation in certain events, however at no time did we offer or were we asked for an opinion on the matter. “While we did not make any social media posts specifically praising Mr. Burns (once again, to the very best of my knowledge on the subject), we were instructed to continue business as usual at that time since we had to respect the confidentiality of the case.”

Repeated delays, little communication

Roberts, meanwhile, kept pushing for updates.

“We are in the final stages and hope to have it completed in the near future,” Smith wrote on August 31.

“Still moving forward. Just waiting on final review. Hope things are going well,” Smith wrote on September 25.

Roberts wrote Smith again on December 8, the opening day of the women’s competition at the American Open in Anaheim, asking for an update and again raising the issue of running into Burns. It was at least Roberts’ 13th request for an update since the investigation was launched nine months earlier. Roberts received no reply.

Roberts won her division for her first major title but was unable to enjoy the moment. Burns was in attendance as a coach.

“He’s coaching a lot of people now and he walked into the warm-up area while I was competing in that meet,” Roberts said. “And I started hyperventilating. I actually had already won. … I was super pissed this was the first meet that I won at the national level and I should have been ecstatic but I was like, ‘How can I get out of here without seeing him?’ I ran through the curtains. We went through this really weird back way to get out so I can go get my medal without having to walk, like my boyfriend had to go get my bag, so I didn’t have to see him. I shouldn’t have been doing that. I’d just won. This was American Open 2017 in Anaheim.

“I felt (cheated). I should be so excited, instead I’m like,” Roberts continued, gasping as she spoke, “Why is he here? Why is here?

“You know … I was really angry. He just shouldn’t have been there. I’d gone through like nine months of the investigation, this was December. I’m like what more could I have done?”

On December 30 Smith finally replied.

“I do not see that I sent my reply to you,” she wrote. “Please call me next week.”

“I don’t think anyone who’s gone through that should also have to be the person pushing their investigation through,” Roberts said looking back. “Which is what I felt like was happening. What would have happened if I didn’t send all those emails? I feel like I never would have heard anything, it would have died had I not sent all those emails.”

SafeSport reaches a finding

At 5:09 p.m. on February 14, 2018, Valentine’s Day, Roberts received an email from Smith.

“The notice of decision will be sent later today via email,” Smith wrote.”The email will contain a link to a Box where the documents can be accessed.”

At 9:41 p.m., Roberts received an email from Michael Henry, SafeSport’s legal affairs director, with “Notice of Decision RE: Colin Burns – U.S. Center for SafeSport.”

“The U.S. Center for SafeSport has issued a decision regarding USA Weightlifting member, Colin Burns. As a Reporting Party, you are entitled to review the Decision and Investigative Report,” Henry wrote including a link to the decision in the email.

SafeSport had found that Burns had engaged in non-consensual sexual acts against Roberts and lied about it.

Recalling the moment recently, Roberts said what stood out as much as the ruling was a paragraph in the letter from Henry.

“All documents contained in the linked folder are strictly confidential and are for your review, only. The documents are not to be downloaded, copied, printed, or otherwise disseminated in any way; doing so would constitute a violation of SafeSport policy. The above link will expire on February 22, 2018.”

“So basically I just scrolled through it and I really didn’t like reading about myself in that way,” Roberts said. “I scrolled through it … that email was very intimidating, ‘Don’t download it, don’t disseminate.’ And I came out of my room after I read that part and told my boyfriend (Burns is) sanctioned. He was like, ‘That’s good.’ But I had this feeling like it’s not over. There’s no way he’s going to accept this. He’s going to fight it.”