A Texas District Attorney has decided against prosecuting former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny for tampering with evidence related to the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal.

Walker County DA Will Durham’s decision not to prosecute Penny comes 3 1/2 years after Penny was arrested by a U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task force in a Tennessee resort town after a Texas grand jury indicted him on felony evidence tampering charges.

“The indictment further alleges that the removal of the documents was done for the purpose of impairing the ongoing investigation by destroying or hiding the documents,” the Walker County District Attorney’s office said in a statement at the time of Penny’s arrest.

Penny, who has maintained his innocence, could have faced 2 to 10 years in prison.

Durham made the decision not to prosecute Penny without consulting with or informing the dozens of women Nassar, the former U.S. Olympic and national team physician, sexually assaulted during national team training camps at a ranch owned by former Olympic and national team directors Martha and Bela Karolyi in remote Central Texas, according to an attorney who represents at least five Olympic champions.

“The idea that (Durham) would make a decision like this without consulting with these victims, with the families, no calls, no emails is disgraceful,” said John Manly, an Orange County attorney who represents hundreds of Nassar survivors including Olympic champion Simone Biles and World champion Maggie Nichol, who informed Penny and USA Gymnastics of her abuse by Nassar in June 2015, 16 months before the scandal became public.

“The reason (Durham) didn’t reach out is clear–the decision doesn’t make sense,” Manly continued. “If I was Will Durham I would be ashamed of myself. He didn’t have the decency to call the victims or me and that’s about as low as I’ve ever seen. Now I have to call my clients and explain this decision and I can’t explain it.”

Durham, who was not the DA at the time of Penny’s arrest told the Houston Chronicle that there was no evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

“A large number of documents (and possibly all of them previously removed) were later returned to Walker County upon request,” Durham told the Chronicle, which was first to report Durham’s decision. “Without sufficient proof of these documents being changed or modified and being permanently kept from discovery or observation, pursuant to the appellate ruling interpreting the Texas tampering statute, our office decided that the case … should not be further pursued.”

Durham did not respond to a request for comment.

USA Gymnastics national teams manager Amy White, on Penny’s orders, removed several boxes of medical records and other documents relevant to the Nassar investigation from the Karolyi Ranch in November 2016, according to documents obtained by the Southern California News Group.

Rhonda Faehn, former USA Gymnastics vice president for the women’s program, said in a sworn deposition that White confided to her that Penny called her and told her to remove records from the Karolyi Ranch and transport them to USA Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis.

White told Faehn that after returning to the headquarters “she gave them to Steve Penny,” Faehn said referring to the medical records.

White was assisted in removing the documents by Gary Warren, who ran the Karolyi Ranch for USA Gymnastics.

White asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination at least 130 times in a November 2018 deposition in Olympic champion Aly Raisman’s federal lawsuit against USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee, Nassar and several other top USA Gymnastics officials and coaches. The deposition is part of more than 1,000 pages of documents including deposition transcripts, emails, letters, memos, contracts related to the Raisman suit that provide a roadmap of the steps USA Gymnastics officials took to keep Nassar’s abuse and its extent from authorities and the public.

The documents also highlight that top USA Gymnastics officials were aware and concerned about sexual abuse within the sport for decades and how later the organization’s top medical officer failed to report Nassar, even after she witnessed his abuse first hand.

“Penny told his staff not to let the Texas Rangers onto the ranch and then immediately flew his staff down there,” Manly said. “He did because he didn’t want (the Rangers) to find evidence. He hid it from (the Rangers) and he took it to another state. This is not how it’s supposed to be done.”

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Manly said he felt Durham misled him in a series of conversations.

“For the last four years, my office and my clients have spent countless hours arranging survivors interviews with you, providing you with materials, giving interviews and answering questions all with the promise you would bring Mr. Penny to trial,” Manly wrote in a letter to Durham. “At no time did you ever suggest to me or my clients that you didn’t have the evidence to try Mr. Penny. On the contrary you reiterated to us that you felt the case was strong and important to try given the damage done by Mr Penny’s conduct.

“Will, I last spoke to you a few months ago and you thought the Penny trial would commence in June. At no time did you ever suggest that Penny actually returned the documents at issue (which you and I both know is total nonsense). Further at no time did you indicate any hesitation to try the case.”

The Karolyi Ranch is no longer used for U.S. Olympic or national team training camps.

“The only bright spot here is, thanks to Simone Biles and many others, America’s gymnasts no longer train at that house of horrors in Walker County,” Manly wrote to Durham. “At least you and your predecessors’ inaction, malfeasance and indifference to the truth can’t hurt them anymore.”