Former US gymnastics coach John Geddert commits suicide after criminal charges, including human trafficking and sexual assault

Former U.S. gymnastics coach John Geddert died of suicide on Thursday, hours after being charged with two dozen crimes stemming from charges that he physically, emotionally and sexually abused gymnasts in his care.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel confirmed that Geddert committed suicide on Thursday afternoon, calling his death “a tragic end to a tragic story for everyone involved”.

Michigan state police confirmed that Geddert’s body was found at a rest stop on an interstate highway at 3:24 pm Eastern Time.

Geddert, 63, was scheduled to be sued in Eaton County, Michigan, on Thursday afternoon.

Michigan state officials have accused Geddert of 24 crimes: 20 counts of human trafficking and forced labor, a first-degree sexual assault charge, a second-degree sexual assault charge, extortion and lying to a police officer. An attorney from the Michigan Attorney General’s office also said on Thursday that Geddert knew that unfortunate US team doctor Larry Nassar was sexually abusing patients at the gym where they both worked and lied to the police during a Nassar investigation in 2016.

The rest of the charges against Geddert are all linked to his own behavior with gymnasts he trained at gyms he owned in Michigan. Police began investigating Geddert in February 2018, after complaints were raised about his abusive training style during Nassar’s conviction hearing.

Court documents released on Thursday claim that, among other things, Geddert in January 2012 digitally penetrated a girl who was between 13 and 16 years old.

Geddert owned Twistars USA Gymnastics in Dimondale, Michigan, just outside Lansing, where dozens of women say they were sexually abused by Nassar under the guise of medical treatment. Geddert and Nassar worked side by side for more than a quarter of a century, while both reached the peak of elite gymnastics.

Geddert has long been seen by the gym community as one of Nassar’s primary facilitators. In the late 1980s, at the Great Lakes Gymnastics Club in Lansing, even before he was a licensed doctor, Nassar began sexually assaulting minor gymnasts at his training table, according to reports by several women.

Geddert gained national prominence in the early 2000s and was named coach of the United States team at the 2012 London Olympics. His role as a national coach led him to travel around the world with the best gymnasts in America. Many of these gymnasts, including all members of the famous Fierce Five who won gold in London, say that Nassar abused them during his international travels.

Former Olympic athlete McKayla Maroney says she was in a car with Geddert on one of these international trips in Tokyo during the 2011 World Championship. During the car ride, Maroney gave a graphic description of how Nassar had touched her in a way inappropriate during a treatment session the night before, according to several people who heard his comments. Geddert did not react immediately, according to reports from the car’s passengers, but has since denied having heard Maroney’s comments.

USA Gymnastics suspended Geddert during Nassar’s sentencing hearing in January 2018 amid a barrage of public complaints from former gymnasts about his abusive coaching style. Geddert announced that he was retiring from the trainer days after being suspended by USA Gymnastics. He transferred ownership of Twistars USA to his wife and training partner in 2018. The gym was sold to new owners earlier this month.

Geddert was the fifth person to face criminal charges stemming from the Nassar case. Former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny was arrested for tampering with evidence in 2018. In the state of Michigan, where Nassar worked, former president Lou Anna Simon, former dean of medical school William Strampel and former trainer gymnast Kathie Klages were all charged with crimes. Strampel, the former chief of Nassar, was accused of misconduct in the job and intentional neglect of duty and served eight months of a year’s prison sentence before being released last spring. Klages was found guilty of lying to the police in August 2020 and sentenced to 90 days in prison. The allegations of lying to the police against Simon were dismissed in May 2020, but the attorney general’s office is appealing the decision, Nessel said on Thursday.

Nassar, 57, is currently serving a 60-year prison sentence on child pornography charges at a federal prison near Orlando, Florida, but he can also face an additional maximum of up to 175 years in prison for his state charges on Ingham and Eaton County, Michigan. Earlier this month, Nassar appealed his case to the Michigan Supreme Court. Nessel said on Thursday that Nassar’s sentence in court must be upheld, describing it as “a fair and just sentence”.