Taylor Barnes

Special for USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO — Police in Rio never questioned four U.S. swimmers about their alleged vandalism of a gas station restroom, further evidence that a poster was the only property damaged by Ryan Lochte during a stop that ended in a heated exchange with security guards and set off an international controversy that upstaged the Olympics.

The details came to light Tuesday after USA TODAY Sports viewed transcripts of testimony given by the swimmers to Rio law enforcement officials. An ­extensive review of surveillance footage and a visit to the gas station as part of a USA ­TODAY Sports investigation published Sunday had previously sup­ported a state­ment by swim­mer Gunnar Bentz that he did not see anyone vandalize the rest­room.

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Lochte has said his first account of the Aug. 14 incident to a journalist and police was exaggerated. He omitted that he and his teammates voluntarily stopped at the gas station, where they urinated behind bushes, overstated the property taken from him by the security guards and the proximity of a gun pointed at him. Lochte has been pilloried for his initial statements and faces, along with his three teammates, a disciplinary hearing before the International Olympic Committee.

Rio police characterized the incident as extensive vandalism committed by rambunctious young athletes, a portrayal that heightened the backlash against Lochte in particular. In a news conference Thursday, the head of Rio’s civil police force, Fernando Veloso, said Lochte and his teammates broke a mirror and soap dispenser in the bathroom.

But in their signed testimonies to police, the athletes were asked only about — and admitted to — damage to an advertising poster with a metallic frame that was knocked down by Lochte.

“It was only an advertising sign,” said Breno Melaragno Costa, a lawyer who represented U.S. swimmer Jimmy Feigen in a settlement to avoid charges of filing a false police report. “This should not have been called vandalism. This is a manipulated piece of information.”

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A witness, Fernando Deluz, who served as an intermediary when he saw security guards draw a gun on the swimmers, also says he understood the dispute to be only about the sign.

“I asked (the gas station employees) what was happening. They said, ‘Hey, the gringos broke a sign and peed here,’ ” Deluz said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. He added that employees spoke to him only about damage to a sign and that he thinks the athletes were in the wrong, trying to leave the scene of damage without offering compensation.

As new details of the encounter continue to emerge, legal experts in Rio say the security guards’ actions merit an investigation, claiming they might have broken Brazilian law by threatening the swimmers with guns as they demanded payment.

The crime experts point to arbitrary exercise of personal force, or vigilante justice.

USA TODAY Sports submitted written questions to the Rio police about the extent of the damage caused by the athletes and whether the security guards would be investigated. A police spokesperson confirmed by phone the receipt of the email but had not responded to questions.

Rio state judge João Batista Damasceno compared the incident to a landlord collecting rent from a tenant — with a gun in his hand. Even if the money is owed, force cannot be used, he said.

“This security guard or any other person can run after the person” who is fleeing the scene, Damasceno said. “They get you, hold on to you and call the police, which will eventually accompany that person to the station.”

An open question is whether the security guards can allege they used their weapons in self-defense against the swimmers.

In the athletes’ recounting of the night, they first see a gun on the hips of two men who approach their taxi as they try to leave the location. Two of the swimmers begin to walk away from the car, according to their testimony — and then the security guards draw their guns. Deluz also said that the guards pulled their guns when the men attempted to leave the scene.

Damasceno and Costa said the use of a weapon in such a situation is not justified.

“The security guards weren’t defending themselves. They were holding the athletes by pointing a firearm,” Costa said. “It is common (in Brazil) and ends up being natural to have private armed security. Which is very dangerous — this case came close to being a tragedy. They were drunk youth being held by two armed security guards.”

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Veloso said at the news conference that nothing in the investigation had indicated an inappro­priate use of force. He described it as necessary to “contain” the swimmers who were particularly strong men.

“Was there a weapon pointed at them? Yes,” Veloso said.

Veloso said the guards testified that the “physical physique of the athletes” and the fact that they were very “unsettled” were reasons to have used their weapons. In none of the accounts, from the athletes or from the police, do the security guards ever fire shots.

Lochte said the security guards identified themselves as members of law enforcement, and Veloso confirmed as much. Costa, who has seen the police report, told local news media that the guards also were prison guards who work in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais.

Costa takes issue with the charge against his client, Feigen, of “provoking action of authorities by communicating the occurrence of a crime ... known to not be true.” In a statement to police, Feigen said he had not wanted to admit to police originally that he had urinated in a public place and that he did not want to give details about Lochte’s knocking down of a sign because he did not witness it.

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Feigen paid about $10,000 in a settlement to avoid charges, though he could have performed community service. Costa said the swimmer wanted to leave Brazil as soon as possible.

“People’s hatred scared him and made him scared for his physical safety,” Costa said.

Damasceno added that, while the story has gotten outsized coverage compared with the relatively trivial nature of the men’s alleged crime, it brings to light important issues in Brazilian day-to-day life, including the murky zone between law enforcement and and how the private security contractors operate. He said the fact the incident happened with American athletes highlighted this concern in a way it wouldn’t have had it involved poor Brazilians.