Hmmm … How Much Does an Arizona State University Get Paid for a Sun Devil Aquatics Pool Rental Contract Like That?

The father of the woman alleging that Greg Winsow sexually abused her at the Sun Devil Aquatics club on the Arizona State University campus is asking publicly what is taking the Maricopa County attorney so long to decide whether to accept the ASU campus police recommendation to charge him on two felony counts. And who can blame the dad? We’re now at more than two months and counting. This is not about the emergence of new evidence. It’s about the reluctance of a prosecutor to get off the can with existing evidence.

What are the possible extra-legal — that is to say, political — factors fueling the authorities’ indecision? Let us count them. The idea that Sun Devil Aquatics is not associated with ASU is spectacularly misleading. The club owner, Mike Chasson (husband of USA Swimming National Board of Review chair Jill Chasson, who is also an old girlfriend of North Baltimore Aquatic Club aide-de-camp John Cadigan), was additionally the head intercollegiate swim coach at ASU at the time Winslow, an assistant on his staff, allegedly molested the young woman.

Then there are the shared colors. And the logo. And the branding. ASU and Sun Devil Aquatics go together like oil and … oil.

The two entities’ aquatics facilities are also overlapping. Make that identical.

I asked the ASU athletic department to tell me how much Sun Devil Aquatics pays ASU annually in pool rental fees. Assistant sports information director Maggie Emmons declined to answer, and referred me to university vice president and general counsel José A. Cárdenas.

Late yesterday I submitted to Cárdenas a request under the Arizona Freedom of Information Act for copies of the facilities rental agreements between the “independent” USA Swimming youth club and the university for 2012 and 2013.

 
Irv Muchnick
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