He 'controlled everything they did': Why rare trafficking charges were used in Geddert case

Feb. 28—Attorney General Dana Nessel's use of human trafficking charges against former U.S. Olympics gymnastics coach John Geddert was a rare but logical use of laws used sparingly throughout the United States and in Michigan, experts say.

The use of the laws within the context of USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic system makes it especially applicable to the situations of the 20 gymnasts who alleged physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Geddert, said Bridgette Carr, director of the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School.

"Once you look at the U.S. Olympic system from that narrative — understanding that it's a closed system, tons of power and profit in the hands of a few, and that the money is made on the bodies of child athletes — it doesn't surprise anyone familiar with trafficking and abuse that this is an environment in which it could occur," Carr said.

While civil suits alleging human trafficking through sexual servitude and forced labor are becoming slightly more common in competitive sports such as Olympic taekwondo, the use of human trafficking for forced labor in a criminal context is rare, said Martina Vandenberg, president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center.

At the federal level, only 14 criminal cases last year involved the federal equivalent of Nessel's charges, Vandenberg said.

"What is rare is to see these charges brought in the criminal courts," Vandenberg said. Nessel's case against Geddert "is a huge step in the right direction," she said.

Nessel announced Thursday that Geddert faced 20 counts of human trafficking for forced labor, 14 of which involved an injury and six that involved a minor. He also was charged with running a criminal enterprise for the various human trafficking charges stemming from his work with his gym, Twistars USA in Dimondale, two counts of sexual assault against a gymnast and lying to a police officer.

Geddert killed himself Thursday. His body was found at a Clinton County rest stop hours after the charges against him were announced, ending what would have been a trial uncommon by state and national standards.

Nessel on Thursday acknowledged the use of human trafficking laws in the context of a gymnastics coach was "unusual" but said the facts of the case would bear out the charges.

"Traffickers can seize opportunities at any time and use the vulnerability of their victims to their advantage," Nessel said. "Young impressionable women may at times be vulnerable and open to trafficking crimes, regardless of their stature in the community or the financial well-being of their families."

Why use trafficking laws?

In court Wednesday, Special Agent Bridgette Frost sought to lay the groundwork for proving the different elements of human trafficking for forced labor in Geddert's case.

Michigan's human trafficking for forced labor laws make it a 15-year felony to "knowingly recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide or obtain an individual for forced labor or services" when it results in injury. State law makes it a 20-year felony to do the same when it involves a minor.

In a more than hour-long hearing in which she asked a judge to authorize the charges, Frost disclosed that the 20 gymnasts were physically and emotionally abused and, many times, intimidated into silence out of fear of being harmed by Geddert or having their chances at advancing in the sport harmed should they cross Geddert or leave Twistars.

Gymnasts were criticized for their weight and put on restrictive diets, Frost said. Geddert forced them to train on injuries, injured the gymnasts himself and criticized the athletes to their new coaches if they left the gym, Frost said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

One gymnast who began training at Twistars at the age of 10 told investigators that "Geddert controlled everything they did."

Another, who said she was head-butted and stomped on the foot by Geddert, said the coach would "alienate the victim from other athletes and not allow the other athletes to speak to her," Frost said.

With those allegations, Geddert arguably could have been charged under child abuse or physical assault statutes, but those charges would have captured single instances while ignoring the larger system, Vandenberg said.

"What's going on in the trafficking cases, it's so much more about one incident of abuse against a child," she said. "It is an entire environment, entire ecosystem of abuse where there is total control over a child's life.

"What they may be trying to capture is that system of complete control and the force and coercion and psychological abuse that the coaches can use," Vandenberg said of prosecutors.

Geddert held sway in USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic system, perpetuating the belief among gymnasts that if they left Geddert they also abandoned their dreams for the sport. Athletes can't perform within USA Gymnastics or go to the U.S. Olympics by hanging on to their high school coach, Carr said; in most cases, they have to go through the U.S. Olympics pipeline, which included Geddert.

"You don't get a gold medal if you go to a different gym," Carr said.

One of the key elements Frost established in Wednesday's hearing was noting that each gymnast was paying for the training, cementing the transactional nature of the girls' activity there, Carr said. Geddert also stood to gain publicity and more business if the gymnasts made it to the Olympics.

"The U.S. Olympic pipeline is one that creates a ton of money for a ton of people," Carr said.

Geddert reported an approximate gross income between 2014 and 2018 of about $2.7 million, Frost said in court Wednesday. Twistars USA, an elite gymnastics facility Geddert founded, had gross sales of about $9.3 million between 2012 and 2018.

'Be ready to believe'

The parents who paid for the training likely were just as manipulated by Geddert as their daughters, Carr said.

"Traffickers know that if they snatch someone or assault someone on day one that person is going to run away," Carr said. Instead, they "invest time in both grooming their targets and, in some ways, testing out if their target is going to tell anyone."

One gymnast whose case was detailed by Frost Wednesday told a USA Gymnastics investigator in 2014 she was concerned about the interview "for fear of retaliation by John Geddert." The interview took place two years before serial molester and former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar faced his first charges.

The girl told investigators Geddert was spotting her on the uneven bars in 2012 or 2013 when he grabbed her waist and threw her on the bars. She struck her face and neck on one of the bars before hitting the ground, rupturing lymph nodes and tearing her abdominal muscles, according to Frost.

It is unclear what became of USA Gymnastics' interview with the gymnast or whether they followed up on the allegations regarding Geddert. A message was left Friday with the organization.

Geddert "gets everyone to buy into his program" by selling them on dreams of becoming a collegiate or Olympic gymnasts, she told investigators. And, when athletes start seeing results, parents and gymnasts are "hooked."

"The gymnasts become too afraid to complain together or their parents for fear of retaliation," Frost said. "Geddert will punish them by making them run, climb the ropes or do numerous repetitive exercises."

If the nation learns nothing else from these kinds of cases, Carr hopes adults will learn to equip themselves and their children to speak out if something seems wrong. And adults who are confided in, she said, "have to be ready to believe."

"By the time you get to this point, where you have victim after victim after victim in the same system, we have utterly failed them because it means people have been on notice and ignored it," she said.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com