Olympic equestrian Rich Fellers pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his student Maggie Kehring. (Mugshot of Fellers: Washington County Sheriff's Office; screenshot of Kehring: KOIN)
A well-known equestrian and former Olympian pleaded guilty on Tuesday for sexually abusing his student.
Rich Fellers, 63, will serve all his time in federal prison though prosecutors in Washington County, Oregon, had also charged him.
"Mr. Fellers was charged in our county with 4 counts of Sex Abuse in the Second Degree," Washington County Deputy District Attorney Rayney Meisel told Law&Crime in an email. "As part of a global resolution with the Federal Government he has plead guilty to two charges of Sex Abuse in the Second Degree in our County, and charges in Federal Court. He will be serving a total of 50 months. All of his time will be served in the Federal Bureau of Prisons."
Records show Fellers was charged in federal court with a count of interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
He competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, placing eighth in individual show jumping with a horse named Flexible. He was well respected in the equestrian community. Maggie Kehring joined him at his jumping stable near Portland, Oregon, to learn what she could, living in a small apartment near his barn and sharing meals with his family, according to Bloomberg. She said, however, that he took advantage of that trust by pursing a sexual relationship in December 2019, when he was 60 and she was 16.
"You're not a little girl anymore, Maggie," he told her on the phone, according to her recollection. "I'm crazy about you."
She said she put the phone down in fear.
"I knew I couldn't leave that barn," she said. "He was supposed to be the one to help me get to the Olympics."
But he continued over months to ply her with professions of affection, telling her she was like a goddess to him and he had never been in love like that before, according to the report.
The situation escalated to sexual abuse and later ended in June 2020 when Fellers' wife, Shelly Fellers, caught them together when they were all at an Airbnb for a horse show in Michigan.
"You kissed my husband!" Shelley Fellers said, according to Kehring's recollection. "How could you?"
Shelley Fellers later filed for divorce.
Rich Fellers appeared in a light-hearted October 2019 video for the Fédération Equestre Internationale in which he answered questions while assembling a bridle. When asked what superpower he'd want, he said he wanted to be physically 20 years old again.
The interviewer asked Fellers if he had a celebrity crush.
"No, not really," the equestrian said. "I'm too old to have crushes."
That was several months before the phone incident.
"I did care about him, you know, immensely," Kehring told CBS in 2021. "He was a person in my life who I had so much trust and respect for." She had never been in a relationship, and she had made it clear that she was still a virgin, she said.
She had known Fellers since she was 11 years old.
Kehring was asked how she would have described Fellers when she was 15.
"I would've said that he's an incredible rider," she said. "He's an incredible horseman. He's a great teacher. He's a great person."
But now?
He's a "sociopath," she said.
Note: We added details from state prosecutors and federal records.
