After watching video and hearing testimony from witnesses, the Brazilian police said they determined the incident involved damage to a bathroom at a gas station where the swimmers stopped in the early hours Sunday on the way back to the athletes’ village from a party.
The police said the taxi carrying the swimmers stopped at a Shell gas station about 6 a.m., shortly after the men exited a party at Club France, an Olympic hospitality house established here in the upscale Lagoa district.
At the gas station, which is in Barra da Tijuca, on the route to the athletes’ village, the swimmers went to the bathroom. In the process, according to the account by investigators, damage was done to the bathroom door, and a discussion ensued with the manager and a security guard.
Someone at the gas station called the police, but by the time a police car arrived at the scene, the swimmers were gone. Witnesses, including a person who offered to translate for the swimmers, said that they paid money to the manager before leaving.
Judges ordered the swimmers to stay in the country and surrender their passports over doubts about their testimony, but Lochte had left Brazil and the United States Olympic Committee would not give up the swimmers’ locations. Then the police pulled two of the swimmers off their plane Wednesday night and said that they needed to remain in the country as the investigation unfolded.
“The truth is that this crime in Brazil is not that serious,” said Judge Marcello Rubioli, the head of the special court handling the case involving four American swimmers, referring to making a false claim. “It results in very little punishment. If they are found guilty, they would just have to make a payment to an NGO that does humanitarian work. It’s not a serious crime. It’s not a crime that is going to send them to prison. It’s not a crime that’s going to prevent them from returning home.”
The episode has also touched on sensitive issues of sovereignty and nationalism around the Rio Olympics, while focusing enormous scrutiny on the perceptions of danger in a society where many Brazilians themselves often lament their exposure to alarming levels of violent crime and police corruption.
“This incident has caused so much damage to Rio’s brand abroad that I think Brazilians deserve a clear, consistent account of what happened,” Brian Winter, vice president for policy at Americas Society and Council of the Americas, said.
The entire episode, Winter said, “has tapped into one of Brazilians’ biggest pet peeves — gringos who treat their country like a third-rate spring break destination where you can lie to the cops and get away with it.”
Meanwhile, the new turns in the case were raising tensions around Brazil, with some commentators questioning the role of the U.S.O.C. in providing confusing initial accounts of what happened and then shielding the swimmers from scrutiny.
Still, Olympics officials in Rio seemed to be trying Thursday to play down the episode.
“No apologies from him or from the other athletes are needed,” Mario Andrada, a spokesman for the Rio Olympics organizing committee, said. “We need to understand that these kids were trying to have fun. They came here, they represented their country to the best of their abilities.”
He added: “But let’s give these kids a break. Sometimes you take actions that you later regret.”
Still, some here in Rio lamented the entire episode, emphasizing that they wished the police were always so efficient in clearing up reports of violent crime in a city that endured an alarming crime wave in the months ahead of the Olympics. Authorities sought to ease fears by deploying a security force comprising 85,000 police officer and soldiers.
“The real dilemma is that people in this city live in fear of crime,” said Eduardo Rangel, 64, the owner of store selling office supplies. “The swimmers took advantage of the mess that exists around here to further denigrate the city. That doesn’t mean Rio is some paradise without crime.”
Others in Rio, however, said they felt deeply insulted by the behavior of the American swimmers.
“These guys from abroad think they’re superior to us, that they can come here, make a mess, lie about it and stain the image of Brazil,” said Airton Rocha, 28, a waiter at a cafe. “Well, the law is the law and it should apply to everyone in the same way.
