Grand jury indictment, disciplinary panel imposes ban
On March 21, 1994, a Portland grand jury issued an indictment stating there was evidence Harding participated in the attack plot. The indictment concluded more than two months of investigation and witness testimonies from Diane Rawlinson, Erika Bakacs (Harding's choreographer), Eckardt's college instructor and classmates, and Vera Marano (a freelance figure skating writer in Philadelphia). It stated there was evidence Harding fraudulently used USFSA provided skating monies to finance the assault. It also read that Harding, Gillooly, Eckardt, Smith, and Stant agreed to "knowingly cause physical injury...by means of a dangerous weapon." The grand jury foreman said the evidence implied Harding as "involved from the beginning or very close." She was not charged in the indictment due to the terms of her March 16 plea agreement. On June 29, the USFSA disciplinary panel met for nine hours over two days to consider Harding's alleged role in the attack. On June 30, Chairman William Hybl stated "By a preponderance of the evidence, the panel did conclude that she had prior knowledge and was involved prior to the incident. This is based on civil standards, not criminal standards...bank records, phone records – the way they came together to establish a case." The panel decided that pertinent FBI reports, court documents, and Harding's March 16 plea agreement presented "a clear disregard for fairness, good sportsmanship, and ethical behaviour." Harding chose neither to attend nor participate in the two-day hearing. Robert Weaver said the decision disappointed her but was not a surprise, and that she had not decided on an appeal. Harding was stripped of the 1994 U.S. Championship title and banned for life from participating in USFSA events as either skater or coach. The USFSA has no dominion over professional skating events, yet Harding was also persona non grata on the pro circuit. Few skaters and promoters would work with her, and she did not benefit from the ensuing boom in professional skating after the scandal.
Later interviews
Shortly before the 1998 Winter Olympics, the CBS and Fox news divisions re-examined the scandal for two televised special reports. Harry Smith hosted the CBS special. He reported that Harding still held to her statement from her press conference given on January 27, 1994: "I had no prior knowledge of the planned assault on Nancy Kerrigan." Smith then interviewed Kerrigan, asking how she responded to that statement. Nancy Kerrigan referred to transcripts she had read from Harding's FBI interview on January 18, 1994. After reading through the interrogation of that day, she concluded that "[Tonya] knew more than she admits." The Fox special report was called Breaking the Ice: The Women of '94 Revisited, hosted by James Brown with interviews from Harding, Gillooly, and Kerrigan. Jeff Gillooly (granted a name change to Jeff Stone in 1995) said Harding's prison evasion did not anger him, and that he felt his own punishment was just. Stone reflected on Harding's position of "limited involvement" in Kerrigan's attack and speculated that a "guilty conscience" still troubled her. Brown then mediated a joint interview with both Kerrigan and Harding present. The two former competitors shared sincere desires for happy families and general well-wishes toward one other. Nancy Kerrigan said she hoped Harding could learn from past mistakes and "find happiness." Harding said she was grateful to personally express remorse to Kerrigan again.
In Harding's 2008 biography, The Tonya Tapes (transcribed by Lynda D. Prouse from recorded interviews), she stated that she wanted to call the FBI in 1994 to reveal what she knew, but decided not to when Gillooly allegedly threatened her with death following a gunpoint gang rape by him and two other men she did not know. Jeff (Gillooly) Stone responded with surprise that groundless claims against him could be published and specifically contended her gang rape accusation to be "utterly ridiculous." In 2013, Deadspin sought Jeff Stone for an interview and he again defended himself from the gunpoint gang rape allegation. Yet he expressed regret that Harding is often "remembered for what I talked her into doing," meaning allegedly plotting to injure Nancy Kerrigan. Stone admitted that his past stupidity was part of Harding's 1994 ruin and maintained that he still considered her a great figure skater. He also said "I've had it easy, compared to poor Tonya...she tends to be the butt of the joke. It's kind of sad to me."
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