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LANSING, Michigan – A former U.S. Olympics gymnastics trainer linked to disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar was charged Thursday with two dozen felonies, including sexual assault, human trafficking and management of a criminal enterprise.
John Geddert was the head coach of the 2012 United States Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team, which won a gold medal. Nassar was the team medic and also treated injured gymnasts at Twistars, the Lansing area gymnasium in Geddert for elite athletes.
Geddert, 63, is accused of injuring people for years through forced labor and recruiting minors for forced labor, according to documents filed in a court in Eaton County, near Lansing.
He is also accused of assaulting a teenager with his hands in 2012. Authorities said Geddert also lied to investigators in 2016 when he said he had never heard anyone complain about Nassar.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel hosted an afternoon press conference. A message requesting comment was left for Geddert’s lawyer.
Geddert insisted he had “no knowledge” of Nassar’s crimes, although some gymnasts said he forced them to see Nassar and was physically violent. Nassar, who was a doctor at Michigan State University, was sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts in school and elsewhere as well as for possession of child pornography.
During Nassar’s sentencing, a woman said that Geddert knew in the late 1990s that Nassar had carried out “improper proceedings” against him when he was 16.
Geddert was suspended by Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics during the Nassar scandal. He told families in 2018 that he was retiring.
On her LinkedIn page, Geddert describes herself as “the most decorated female gymnastics coach in the history of gymnastics in Michigan”. He said his Twistars teams won 130 club championships.
But Geddert has often been portrayed unflatteringly when Nassar’s victims spoke at court hearings in 2018.
“What a great best friend John has been to Larry for giving him a whole world he could abuse so easily,” said gymnast Lindsey Lemke. “You certainly have a funny meaning in friendship. You, John Geddert, also deserve to be sitting behind bars right next to Larry.”
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