Taekwondo stars Steven and Jean Lopez accused of sexual assault and gang-rape by dozens of female athletes
Taekwondo superstars Steven and Jean Lopez have been accused of sexual assault and rape by dozens of women.
The brothers' fame and stardom had started to fall apart in 2017 when many women came forward and shared that they had been assaulted by the brothers. Steven Lopez is a three-time Olympic medalist while his brother Jean is a veteran coach. As reported by The Daily Beast, Audrey-Ann LeBlanc revealed that she had been gang-raped by Steven and two of his friends in May 2010.
LeBlanc had been traveling to Dallas to meet Steven during a regional taekwondo tournament. Post the tournament, many had met at a hotel room where Steven gave LeBlanc an alcoholic drink that made her feel sick. "I began to have a feeling that something very bad was going to happen," she revealed.
She added that Steven had guided her into another room where he had two of his friends waiting. LeBlanc was raped and sexually assaulted and woke up the next day in her own hotel room with a fuzzy memory of what had happened on the night before.
A former member of the junior USA taekwondo team also claimed that Steven and his friends had gang-raped her in 2008. She also recalled being given a drink that cause a blackout. "It wasn’t an, 'Ooh, I feel queasy feeling'. I was lucid and then it all went dark," she shared.
When she questioned Steven about it the next day, he had brushed her off. Eventually, Steven told her that they had sex before he left and when he returned, she was having sex with the owner of the condo. When she told Steven that it was a gang-rape, he allegedly told her that she "looked all right to him".
A former taekwondo participant Mandy Meloon also claimed that Jean had molested her in 2006 when she was just 16 years old. Kay Poe and Gabriela Joslin, promising female martial arts athletes accused Jean and Steven of sexual assault. Both the brothers have denied all the sexual assault allegations made against them.