Decisive Federal Court Hearing Friday in FOIA Lawsuit For Rapist Olympic Swim Coach George Gibney’s American Immigration Records; Muchnick Interview on Irish Radio’s ‘Newstalk Drive’
Football Historian Matt Chaney Aids Researchers Uncovering Long-Buried Cases of Sickle Cell Trait Death
October 26, 2016Federal Judge to Issue ‘Tentative’ Order Signaling Partial Disclosure of George Gibney Immigration Files, As Both Sides Agree to Bring FOIA Case to Resolution
October 28, 2016Complete headline links to our series on George Gibney are at https://concussioninc.net/?p=10942.
by Irvin Muchnick
United States District Court Senior Judge Charles Breyer will conduct a hearing Friday on the reiteration of the federal government’s motion for summary judgment against Concussion Inc.’s lawsuit, under the Freedom of Information Act, for public release of files shedding light on the 1990s flight to this country of George Gibney, Ireland’s 1988 Olympic swimming head coach.
At the conclusion of a case management conference in May, Judge Breyer took possession, for in camera review, of 20 core disputed records. These include Gibney’s original visa application and supporting documents, such as a letter offering employment in the U.S. as a swim coach.
(Gibney did indeed coach in the Denver area, before leaving under the cloud of a new allegation of sexual misconduct there and embarking on a multi-state career in the personnel management, airlines, and hospitality industries. He now lives in Altamonte Springs, Florida. He applied for American citizenship in 2010.)
Gibney emigrated just after escaping, on a statute-of-limitations technicality, the first round of charges against him for molesting many of his athletes and other children. Gibney’s sex crimes were part of a cluster of abuse cases in Irish swimming that led to a government commission headed by Judge Roderick Murphy. In 1998 the Murphy Commission report concluded that the Gibney complainants “were vindicated.”
Just before heading out to the Phillip Burton Courthouse in San Francisco tomorrow morning, I am scheduled to be interviewed about the Gibney FOIA case by Chris Donoghue and Sarah McInerney on the evening drive program of Ireland’s Newstalk radio. Newstalk Drive streams at http://www.newstalk.com. The interview is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. in California (2:30 p.m. in Dublin), but I believe it will be taped, not live, and it is of course subject to preemption for more urgent breaking news.