In her first public statement since the incident that led to a domestic abuse charge against her husband, Olympic leader Tom Welch, Alma Welch said she's sorry about the effect it's having on their six children.
"The true victims in this whole tragic situation are our children, and I just love them dearly," she said after contacting a Deseret News reporter Thursday evening.Alma Welch, who broke into tears several times during the conversation, also said she had spoken with her husband once in Africa, and she asked the reporter when he was scheduled to return to Salt Lake City.
Tom Welch arrived in New York early Friday after cutting short an African elephant-hunting expedition with his son. He was expected to return home to Salt Lake City later in the day.
He faces a Class B misdemeanor charge based on allegations he bruised and restrained his wife during a July 9 argument in their home over his involvement with another woman.
No court date has been set, but next Wednesday Tom Welch is expected to appear before members of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee board of trustees to explain why he should remain as president of the 2002 Winter Games.
Before Thursday, neither Tom nor Alma Welch had spoken to reporters since the incident. Tom Welch was reached via cell phone by The Associated Press in the Johannesburg airport.
"I have no idea what's going on, and I'm going home to find out," he said, adding little more, except to confirm he was traveling with a son. He had been told of the charge in a telephone conversation with his attorney on Monday.
After that conversation, attorney Max Wheeler said his client denied the alleged abuse took place. Wheeler told the Deseret News Friday that he has not spoken to Tom Welch since then and did not know when he would return.
"I assume he'll be calling me," Wheeler said.
Yet to be decided is whether Wheeler will represent Tom Welch on issues related to his position with the Olympics. "He hasn't advised me whether he wants me to help him on that or not," Wheeler said.
The Welch family has continued to have problems. Police were called to the family's upper east-bench home Monday by one of the children following a verbal argument between an adult daughter and Alma Welch.
The daughter, Lindsay Welch, 22, had questions about the incident involving her father and "expressed anger that her mother was using the police to document her side of the problem," according to police reports.
A son, Christopher K. Welch, 18, became verbally abusive toward police and to the detective responding to the call, the reports state. Police records show about 10 calls to the home, including about seven involving domestic problems.
Both Tom and Alma Welch acknowledged marital problems in separate interviews with the Deseret News two years ago. They said their troubles were caused by the time they spent apart while Tom Welch pursued the Olympics.
They later said they had reconciled, and that Tom Welch, who had been living in a Park City condominium, had returned to the fam-ily home.
The couple were to have appeared together in public the day after the most recent incident, during a meeting of the Olympic organizing committee's board of trustees.
Alma Welch recently won a national award for serving as executive producer of an educational video series on Olympic values featuring football player Steve Young and former Miss America Sharlene Wells Hawkes.
The award was announced at the board of trustees meeting. Young, Hawkes and KSL anchorman Dick Nourse, who narrated the series, were at the meeting, but Alma Welch was not.
Tom Welch told a reporter after the meeting that his wife was upset with him but did not elaborate further. He left the following week with his son for the planned trip to Africa.