John Geddert was a small town Michigan kid who rose to Olympic coaching fame before 'tragic end'

Feb. 26—John Geddert was a native of a small Michigan town who rose to become a nationally recognized gymnastics coach traveling the world with Olympic gymnasts alongside disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar. But behind his success lurked a dark side, gymnasts who trained with him said.

Allegations from his past — including physical and emotional abuse of at least 20 athletes he coached — came into the light Thursday when Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged Geddert with 24 crimes, including human trafficking and sexual assault that involved a minor.

And in a dramatic twist hours later, Geddert took his own life at the age of 63.

It was an end that drew a mix of emotions. Nessel called it "a tragic end to a tragic story for everyone involved."

Sarah Klein, who was trained by Geddert for 10 years starting when she was age 5, portrayed his suicide as a cowardly act to escape his reckoning and "an admission of guilt" for all to see.

"John Geddert's escape from justice by committing suicide is traumatizing beyond words," Klein said.

"He tortured and abused little girls, myself included, for more than 30 years and was able to cheat justice. Geddert was a narcissistic abuser. His suicide is an admission of guilt that the entire world can now see. ... The bravery of Geddert's many victims will stand for all time in stark contrast to his cowardice."

For subscribers: Gymnasts, officials, activists respond to Geddert's death: 'God is his Judge'

Geddert's lawyer, Chris Bergstrom, did not respond to messages left by The Detroit News.

Geddert's body was found by Michigan State Police troopers at 3:24 p.m. at a rest area off eastbound Interstate 96 in Clinton County, Michigan State Police said. He was expected to turn himself in an hour earlier, at 2:15 p.m., to the Eaton County Sheriff Department.

The 24 charges filed against him earlier in the day included 20 counts of human trafficking of a minor, and one count each of first-degree criminal sexual assault, second-degree criminal sexual assault, racketeering and lying to a police officer, according to court records.

Nessel emphasizedduring a media briefing Thursday that the crimes alleged against Geddert were a result of his own behavior, which encompassed incidents between 2008 and 2018. The two sexual assault charges against Geddert are alleged to have occurred in January 2012 and involve a reported victim between the ages of 13 and 16.

"These allegations focus on multiple acts of verbal, physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by the defendant against multiple victims," Nessel said. "I am grateful for these survivors coming forward to cooperate with our investigation and for bravely sharing their stories."

Geddert was the fourth person to be charged by Michigan authorities in connection with the Nassar scandal, though officials say only one charge, an accusation of lying to police in September 2016, is linked to Nassar. That interview with police took place about two weeks after Rachael Denhollander became the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual assault.

Comments about Geddert didn't dominate the nine days of Nassar's sentencing hearings in Ingham and Eaton counties but they were the beginning of the end for Geddert. Weeks after Nassar went to jail in February 2018 for sexually assaulting scores of female athletes under the guise of providing medical treatments, authorities began investigating Geddert.

He made just one public remark about the scandal in the years since Nassar was accused in 2016, saying in a March 2017 statement he had "zero knowledge" of the allegations against Nassar.

Geddert described himself on his LinkedIn page as "the most decorated women's gymnastics coach in Michigan gymnastics history." He grew up in Alpena and graduated in 1980 from Central Michigan University before starting his career at a gymnastics facility in Maryland. He moved to Lansing in 1984 where he coached at Great Lakes Gymnastics.

He founded in 1996 Twistars USA, an elite gymnastics facility near Lansing where multiple victims of Nassar trained and said they were assaulted by Nassar.

In 2011, Geddert was part of the USA Gymnastics coaching staff that earned a World Championship Gold Medal in Tokyo, Japan.

During that event, retired gymnast McKayla Maroney said after Nassar gave her a sleeping pill on a flight, she awoke in his hotel room and he gave her a "treatment." At the time, she was 15 and not yet an Olympic gold medalist.

"I thought I was going to die," she wrote.

The next day, while in a vehicle with Geddert and other gymnasts, Maroney announced that Nassar had "fingered her" the night before, said California attorney John Manly, who represented Maroney when Nassar was charged.

"No one said anything," Manly said. "One of the athletes turned around and said, 'Don't ever say anything bad about him again.' She was very young. It worked. She was silent."

During a 2018 interview with NBC "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman said she was in the vehicle when Maroney spoke of Nassar's abuse and said Geddert said nothing.

"And why do you think it sticks in your memory?" Guthrie asked the gymnast.

Raisman replied: "Because I feel that what people don't understand is that there were so many adults around us all the time. And nobody ever asked any questions. Nobody ever said anything. And so that's why we just — we always thought that we were the problem. You never, ever realized that sexual abuse can happen to you until it does."

Geddert was also the personal coach of 2011 national champion Jordyn Wieber, a victim of Nassar who grew up in DeWitt and is now the coach of the University of Arkansas women's gymnastics team.

He coached the gold medal-winning 2012 U.S. women's gymnastics team at the London Olympics, the second for the U.S. and first on foreign soil. The team known as the "Fierce Five" included Gabby Douglas, Kyla Ross, Maroney, Raisman and Wieber.

All have since come forward as victims of Nassar.

A statement read at Nassar's sentencing hearing in Ingham County on behalf of Maroney, who retired after winning gold, said she dreamed as a little girl of being an Olympian. "I did it. I got there, but not without a price," Maroney wrote.

In January 2018, USA Gymnastics suspended Geddert amid the fallout from the Nassar scandal and he transferred ownership of the facility to his wife, Kathryn Geddert.

"Geddert's abuse, like so much, was never a secret. EVER," tweeted Denhollander before he was found dead. "In my memoir I wrote about knowing of it even as a club level gymnast in 2000. Because we have to grapple with the reality that it was known, and no one stopped him. It was known, and he was promoted and given more power."

Klein, one of the first women believed to have been sexually abused by Nassar, told The News after she learned Geddert was being charged: "Until now, the Geddert piece was missing, which hasn't allowed closure."

One of her most vivid memories of him was when she 12 years old and had eaten french fries on the way to practice, then later vomited.

"He was so mad that he pushed my face in the vomit and then called the rest of the girls over to stand around me and watch me clean it up," Klein said. "He did that because french fries were not on his 'nutritional guidelines.'"

Klein, now a Philadelphia-based lawyer and advocate for victims of sexual abuse, remembers Geddert screaming, calling fellow gymnasts names and depriving them of water on hot summer days. She said she witnessed him throwing things at gymnasts, berating them and dropping them on purpose if they did something wrong.

"We didn't just survive Nassar. We also survived John Geddert," Klein said. "John broke us, physically and psychologically, and Larry was there to put us back together. These two men developed a good cop/bad cop dynamic from the beginning that benefitted them both enormously. They enabled each other's abuse."

Angela Povilaitis, a former Michigan assistant attorney general who prosecuted Nassar, weighed in on Thursday's developments via Twitter: "A lot of folks may not realize how heavy & hard today's news of John Geddert's suicide is many victims or former gymnasts. Speaking to them directly: HE made his decisions & choices-ALL OF THEM. None of the weight of his choices or burdens should be yours to bare."

Days after Nassar went to prison after receiving his third and final sentence, the Eaton County Sheriff Department announced it had launched a criminal investigation following complaints that were lodged against Geddert. Nessel took over the investigation from Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd in February 2019.

A year later, in January 2020, Nessel's office with the assistance of Michigan State Police and the Grand Ledge Police Department executed search warrants at Twistars and at an Eaton County home connected to Geddert.

An investigation related to Nassar under Nessel's predecessor, former Attorney General Bill Schuette, resulted in charges against William Strampel, former MSU dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Nassar's former boss; Kathie Klages, the former head MSU women's gymnastics coach and former MSU President Lou Anna Simon.

Strampel and Klages served time in jail. Simon was headed for trial in October on charges of lying to police, but a judge dismissed the case after ruling prosecutors didn't produce enough evidence to bind the case to circuit court. Nessel appealed the dismissal in June.