Longtime Montgomery County swim coach Rick Curl surrendered to police Thursday morning to face one count of child abuse, authorities said, based on allegations that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with a young swimmer in the 1980s.
Richard J. Curl, 63, was charged in an arrest warrant on Tuesday, Montgomery County police. He faces up to 15 years if convicted on the single felony count. There is no statute of limitations in Maryland for felonies.
Co-founder of the renowned Curl-Burke Swim Club, he was banned from the sport for life by USA Swimming last month. The swim club has changed its name, and is now operating under the title Nation’s Capital Swim Club.
Police said Curl, of the 2200 block of Aryness Drive in Vienna, was interviewed by a Montgomery County detective on August 15, about three weeks after The Washington Post published an extensive interview with a former member of his swim team who said he had engaged in a sexual relationship with her and then paid her and her parents to keep quiet about it.
The woman, who agreed to be identified in The Post, is Kelley Currin. Her maiden name was Kelley Davies. Now 43, she alleged that Curl began touching her inappropriately in 1983, when she was 13 years old. The abuse continued, and grew more extensive, over the next four years, Currin said.
No other victims have come forward, according to Montgomery County Police.
Police said in a statement that the alleged abuse occurred “in various locations in Montgomery County, to include Curl’s former residences in Rockville and Darnestown and the swimming facilities at the Georgetown Preparatory School located at 10900 Rockville Pike in North Bethesda.”
Curl’s attorney arranged for him to turn himself in Thursday at about 8:30 a.m., police said. He was later released on $50,000 bond.
A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for Nov. 16, according to online court records.
Maggie Fazeli Fard contributed to this story.
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Story originally appeared in The Post's Crime Section.