See It Now — Documenting the 2007 Night USA Swimming Potentate Brandon Drawz Spent in the Indianapolis Jail

By Irvin Muchnick

As promised, we have uploaded the facsimile of the document recording Brandon Drawz’s night in jail in Indianapolis: August 3, 2007. See http://muchnick.net/drawzarrest.pdf.

We are still seeking the narrative report of the arrest incident, in which it was alleged that a drunken Drawz struck his companion with injurious intent and resisted arrest. Anyone with leads can email me at tips@muchnick.net.

The document in hand doesn’t clarify the posting of the $5,000 bail. Drawz ultimately pleaded out the charges, which still later got formally expunged as part of a so-called diversion agreement.

In no way should the episode be dismissed in the context of weighing Drawz’s fitness for leadership positions in USA Swimming — which he continues to enjoy in the wake of his recent dismissal as executive director at SwimMAC in North Carolina. Indeed, sources at USA Swimming headquarters in Colorado Springs call Drawz a favorite of chief executive Chuck Wielgus, who is said to have protected him over the years and, even recently, continued to promote him inside the bureaucracy of organized swimming.

There are two key reasons why the Indianapolis incident is critical, even disqualifying, in an assessment of Drawz in organized youth sports. For one thing, at the time of his arrest, he was chaperoning a club at an out-of-town meet in that city. The kid swimmers showed up on deck the next morning, without supervision or direction or knowing what had happened.

In addition, this isn’t Drawz’s only incident of violent behavior. More on that point as we proceed.

BRANDON DRAWZ SERIES TO DATE

Sources: Shady USA Swimming Board Figure Brandon Drawz Fired at Prominent North Carolina Program