The US Center for SafeSport has permanently banned Kevin ‘Scott’ Morris, a former contractor and director for the USA CRITS series, from participation in activities and competitions with USA Cycling.
SafeSport lists the ruling of ‘permanent ineligibility’, dated September 27, 2023, for “criminal disposition - involving a minor” and “criminal disposition - sexual misconduct”, obtained from the nonprofit’s Centralized Disciplinary Database on their website. The criminal disposition items listed pertain to cases from 2007 and before, for which charges were later not pursued, and Morris accepted a “no contest plea to a computer services crime”.
It had been two years since SafeSport temporarily suspended Morris for allegations of misconduct. At that time, on September 14, 2021, SafeSport did not make the nature of the allegations public.
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“It [this matter] was always regarding legal matters long ago resolved. I never didn’t claim my innocence in these matters,” Morris told Cyclingnews on Tuesday. “Those matters resulted in charges of sexual misconduct being dismissed before I had the [USA Cycling] license in question. There was a no contest plea to a computer services crime. I hate that somebody likely weaponized SafeSport to hurt me and the sport under other pretenses.”
Morris also told Cyclingnews this week that he declined an appeal process in 2023 with SafeSport “because there was no guarantee that I could get an independent arbitrator and the additional harm was frankly already done. I just want to move on.”
In October 2021, Cyclingnews reported that Morris had been temporarily suspended by SafeSport for allegations of misconduct. The matter was brought to light after a number of US-based teams shared on social media that they would pull out USA CRITS due to 'revelations’ about the race organisation still employing an individual with a SafeSport suspension.
Aevolo and L39ION of Los Angeles were the first two teams to pull away from the criterium series, which had ended for the season and looked to relaunch in 2022. A number of the events also withdrew from consideration to continue in the series, including Tulsa Tough.
The teams and events said on social media that they found it unacceptable that Swagger LLC, the company organising USA CRITS, which had hired Morris as a contractor, had not fired him directly. A spokesperson for Swagger said they followed SafeSport guidelines when Morris was suspended on September 14, 2021, and “restricted him from events and any contact with athletes”.
After four years in management with Swagger, Morris' employment with the company ended soon after the social media posts by teams in October 2021. Later in the month, Morris spoke briefly with Cyclingnews, claiming that the suspension was triggered when he entered a criterium race earlier in the year, and someone alerted SafeSport to his past.
“There was a temporary finding of measures taken based on some past charges that I had 15 years ago that were dismissed," Morris said in the interview in October 2021 with Cyclingnews about the temporary suspension.
Morris was arrested in February 2007 in Georgia on five felony counts of sexual exploitation of children after detectives allegedly found files and sexually explicit images of children on his personal computer, according to The Associated Press. At the time of the arrest, Morris was working for a chamber of commerce in a Georgia county, and he was on bond and house arrest for 20 counts of child pornography in Virginia from 2004, the AP story stated.
He was indicted in November 2008 in Georgia for 45 counts of sexual exploitation of children related to 'movies and images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct' that were alleged to be on his home computer. Morris pursued an appeal process through the Court of Appeals of Georgia, which continued through 2013.
All charges were later "abandoned", according to reports, with Morris accepting a “no contest plea to a computer services crime”. He has always protested his innocence, and the charges were not pursued.
While SafeSport cannot comment on details of the Morris case, the nature of a criminal disposition is based on “a Participant to be or have been subject to any disposition or resolution of a criminal proceeding, other than an adjudication of not guilty”, according to the SafeSport Code. A criminal disposition can include “an adjudication of guilt or admission to a criminal violation, a plea to the charge or a lesser included offense”, as well as conditional dismissal or other arrangements.
The Code for Safe Sport states that "it is a violation for a participant to engage in or tolerate Prohibited Conduct", which includes ‘Criminal Charges or Dispositions’. The recent ruling from the investigation did not involve any new charges against Morris.
