Dustin Perry, Notorious Abuser Swimming Coach, Was a Municipal Government Employee, City of Pocatello Now Concedes

PREVIOUSLY:

“Dustin Perry – Grotesque Swimming Coach Serial Abuser – Is Reported to be Back in Pocatello, Idaho. Police There Are Investigating,” January 8, https://concussioninc.net/?p=16502

“Pocatello Police Say They’re Still Investigating Banned Abuser Swimming Coach Dustin Perry, Who Was or Is Back There,” January 20, https://concussioninc.net/?p=16510

Dustin Perry is part of Chapter 12, “Where the Bad Guys Go,” in the book UNDERWATER: The Greed-Soaked Tale of Sexual Abuse in USA Swimming and Around the Globe.

by Irvin Muchnick

Yesterday, in response to a follow-up query by Concussion Inc., the city of Pocatello, Idaho, confirmed that Dustin Perry had indeed been an employee. Previously, the city had said that it didn’t employ Perry, in a way that left open whether it ever had.

Pocatello’s clarification still leaves the mystery of the exact time frame and capacity of Perry’s employment.

The city’s public information officer, Marlise Irby-Facer, emailed: “Dustin Perry was employed by the City of Pocatello at one time but is no longer with the City. Per Idaho state law, the City does not comment on personnel matters in order to protect the privacy of both former employees and the City.”

The known information contains possible clues as to Perry’s timeline and position. I hasten to add that these are not the only possibilities, however. The only way to know for sure what has been going on in the Gem State with one of the most notorious figures in swimming – who was belatedly banned by USA Swimming in 2014 after decades of damage in a coaching career throughout the U.S. and, for a time, in Mexico – would be for people on the ground there to talk, on or off the record.

One possibility: Perry got fired very recently, as a result of this site’s new round of reports – or, likelier, in the fallout of an investigation by Pocatello police detective Eric Miller. The trigger of the police investigation would align with Detective Miller’s persistent silence in response to my inquiries to him subsequent to his reaching out to me on December 24.

If Perry did get booted in alignment with everyone locally clamming up as to when and why, that would fit the pattern of municipalities’, swimming teams’, schools’ – all institutions’ – common modus operandi in getting rid of the problem of a heinous predator. This m.o. involves simply making it the problem of someone else, somewhere else, as the predator moves on. Some other program, some other town, some other country – no one cares so long as the immediate legal exposure has been mitigated and the local embarrassment over outrageously poor controls over supervisors of youth-serving programs has been buried.

We’ve seen this movie before – from former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney (who last year finally was extradited from the U.S. and indicted for a second time in Ireland) on down.

A second possibility: Perry was fired around two years ago from a job at Pocatello’s Ross Park Aquatic Center. This is suggested by an online record, ostensibly on a city services app called CitySourced, that is used by many municipalities and may be used by Pocatello.

At https://pocatelloid.citysourced.com/servicerequests/3434646?portal, there’s an evident complaint from a citizen regarding Perry’s employment at Ross Park. The full text of the complaint was in our last post; the facsimile is at the bottom of this one.

The CitySourced entry goes on to record a two-stage response by Pocatello. First, “We appreciate you contacting us. The City of Pocatello conducts an extensive background check on all new employees prior to their start and includes all states where the candidate may have lived.” Second, “City of Pocatello has updated this service request’s status from ‘Received’ to ‘Closed’.”

Concussion Inc. now will ask Pocatello’s mayor, Brian Blad, as well as Detective Miller if Dustin Perry was indeed employed at the Ross Aquatic Center. If so, when. Also, how this came about. Also, what’s known about Perry’s current whereabouts and what the police are investigating him for.