On Oct 9, Marty Nothstein joined fellow Congressional candidates Susan Wild and Tim Silfies to tape a lively debate for WFMZ-TV69’s Business Matters before a raucous audience of 175 people. He was asked what it felt like to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct that allegedly occurred 16 years ago. They were ultimately determined to be unfounded, but Nothstein called what happened “devastating to me, devastating to my family and devastating to my campaign.” He failed to mention it, but Nothstein filed a lawsuit over this matter the day before his debate.

A 108-page complaint, filed Oct. 8 in Lehigh County Court, names The Veldrome, Andrew H Ralston, Jr and the Morning Call as defendants. Macungie lawyer R. Eric Hall, representing Nothstein, seeks over $50,000 in damages on each count.

According to the complaint, Nothstein had been employed as Executive Director at The Velodrome, a charitable nonprofit, for the past 10 years. The Velodrme is a local cycling venue. Nothstein, a Silver and Gold Medal Olympic athlete, was at one time the fastest person on a bicycle. Ralston, an attorney, chairs the board that oversees oversight.

In his pleading, Nothstein claims he noticed that Ralston was engaged in “self-dealing,” i.e. personally benefiting from his position of trust, by steering legal work to his law firm. He allegedly “funneled tens of thousands of legal work” to his law firm, even though The Velodrome in previous years had little or no legal expenses. In 2016, Nothstein began to complain about this issue, and confronted Ralston

On Oct. 29, 2017, Nothstein announced his candidacy for Congress. He states that a scant 11 days later, an “anonymous tipster” contacted USA Cycling and accused him of unspecified sexual misconduct that supposedly had occurred 18 years ago, when he was in training for the Sydney Olympics.

USA Cycling passed this anonymous tip to Safesport, a federal entity established by Congress to investigate accusations of sexual misconduct by Olympic athletes.

Safesport notified Ralston of its investigation Feb 9, 2018. Just three days later, Ralston handed Nothstein a “confidential” letter, attached to court papers, placing him on indefinite unpaid suspension. Nothstein was instructed to turn in his ID card, keys and credit card that day and was even warned, “There is no reason for you to be at the Velodrome.” He was also prevented from discussing his suspension with other board members or Velodrome employees.

At the same time, Ralston is alleged to have told Velodrome staff, “Marty no longer works here.” He also declared he had a plan to replace Nothstein.

Nothstein states that Ralston acted unilaterally, in violation of by-laws that would require him to consult with other directors. He is alleged to have done this so he could continue to milk the Velodrome with legal bills. Nothstein charges Ralston then ransacked Nothstein’s office and took various items, including high end bicycles and mementos from Nothstein’s cycling career.

Nothstein did eventually get one bicycle returned to him.

According to the complaint, Ralston and other Velodrome board members then began leaking the existence of this investigation, in direct violation of Safesport rules requiring strict confidentiality. These rules exist to protect both victim and accused. Ralston is accused of leaking the investigation to The Morning Call.

The Morning Call began contacting this alleged victim. It also obtained emails or minutes from Ralston in which he discussed the supposedly confidential matter with board members. Before The Morning Call published its first story, Nothstein representatives offered an affidavit from this supposed victim, strongly denying the anonymous accusation of unspecified sexual misconduct. The Call rejected the affidavit and allegedly published the story without informing its readers of these denials. In doing so, the newspaper is alleged to have cast Nothstein in a false light.

According to the lawsuit, the story intentionally omitted information that cleared Nothstein, which includes denials from the supposed female victim.

After a Nothstein news conference on the day this story was published, the paper did admit it had been offered affidavits, but said Nothstein placed too many restrictions on them. This is contradicted in the Complaint. The only restriction Nothstein wanted, he said, was one that would require the newspaper to honor the woman’s request for confidentiality.

According to the complaint, “There is no more compelling evidence than an unequivocal denial from the woman involved in the anonymous accusations, and it was a gross violation of journalistic standards,ethics and integrity for the Morning Call to refuse to review the aforesaid AFFIDAVIT.”

On Aug. 23, Safesport cleared Nothstein of any sexual misconduct.

Nothstein has also sued the Velodrome for continuing to use his name and likeness to draw revenue and for suspending and then firing him in violation of their own bylaws.

One of the named defendants, Andrew Ralston, stated on Facebook that all the allegations are false. He also issued a warning: “please please repeat these allegations outside of the pleadings so I can sue you for defamation.”