The USA Swimming list of athletes permanently banned or ineligible now sits at 84, with the late-April addition of Erick Lans, a former coach of the USA Swimming club the Seekonk Dolphins in Southwestern Massachussetts (just across the state line from Providence, Rhode Island.)
In May of 2001, according to SouthCoastToday, Lans was sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison after being convicted of two counts of rape of a child; two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14; and assault with intent to commit rape on four young girls. After his release from State Prison, he is now serving another 10 years on probation. Those convictions are confirmed by Massachusetts state records.
According to the Massachusetts sex offender registry, he is currently living in Jamaica Plain, an area in Boston.
Lans’ name was most recently pulled into connection with the USA Swimming sexual abuse saga in 2010. Then, in the case of Jane Doe versus USA Swimming, Pacific Swimming and San Jose Aquatics, the attorneys for the plaintiff referenced 32 swim coaches that had been “accused and/or convicted of a sex [crime] against a USA Swimming affiliated member, according to the “SCAQ Blog“. There, the author Tony Austin posted a list that he was provided by the law office of Corsiglia McMahon & Allard LLP that included Lans’ name and information about his conviction.
That file is labeled as an “Exhibit 3 to 2nd Amended Complaint.” A spokeperson for Robert Allard confirmed that Lans was named in that original Jane Doe litigation.
USA Swimming Safe Sport Director Susan Woessner explains a resolution change by the Board of Directors in 2010 that allowed USA Swimming to pursue a ban of Lans:
In 2010, the USA Swimming Board of Directors approved a resolution that allowed the organization to bring National Board of Review hearings against non-members if they were members at the time of their Code of Conduct violation.
Mr. Lans was last a member in 1998. He was convicted in 2001. He was not a member at the time he was convicted.
We periodically conduct internal reviews of our files and last year during one such review, we reviewed two news articles covering Mr. Lans’ convictions. One of the articles cited Dec 1998 as the date of at least one of the incidents which coincided with Mr. Lans membership. As a result of the 2010 BOD resolution, we are now able to bring NBR action against a past member if the violation occurred while the individual was a member. We requested a hearing from the NBR and Mr. Lans was subsequently banned by decision of the National Board of Review.