Geddert accused of head-butting, throwing girls into walls, injuring them
Feb. 26—John Geddert pushed gymnasts off balance beams, threw them into walls, forced them to train injured and made expletive-laden critiques on the athletes' performance and weight, an investigator told an Eaton County district judge this week.
Geddert's behavior toward the gymnasts was so abusive that some of the athletes eventually resorted to self-harm, eating disorders, behavioral disorders and suicide attempts, Special Agent Bridgette Frost of the Michigan Attorney General's Office detailed in a roughly hour-long hearing on Wednesday, according to a court transcript obtained by The Detroit News.
Geddert made one of the girls who attempted suicide apologize to him for the attempt because it "would ruin him and would ruin her as well, ensuring that she never got a scholarship," Frost said.
Some of the gymnasts were as young as nine years old when the alleged incidents occurred, according to Frost.
The hearing where the details of the charges were disclosed was held to establish probable cause that would authorize the felony complaint against Geddert. The hearing, which was closed to the press, resulted in Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filing 24 charges against Geddert.
Geddert killed himself Thursday after he was charged with sexual assault, racketeering and 20 counts of human trafficking related to his alleged abuses of the gymnasts. Michigan State Police found his body at a Clinton County rest stop at 3:24 p.m. more than an hour after he was scheduled to appear in court for arraignment.
Geddert's lawyer, Chris Bergstrom, did not respond to messages left by The News.
The actions each of the gymnasts described to police were not "isolated acts," Frost said as she explained to Eaton County District Judge Julie O'Neill during the probable cause underlying the charge of criminal enterprise. Rather, the actions were "a scheme that defendant Geddert used to achieve profitable success."
Geddert reported an approximate gross income between 2014 and 2018 of about $2.7 million, Frost said. Twistars USA, an elite gymnastics facility Geddert founded, had gross sales of about $9.3 million between 2012 and 2018.
All but one of the gymnasts had charges tied to alleged verbal or physical abuse. Another gymnast told police Geddert sexually assaulted her when she was 14.
Specifically, Geddert followed the girl into the locker room after practice, threw her into the wall and digitally penetrated her, Frost told the judge. Geddert, she said, told the gymnast, "This wouldn't be happening if you just completed my assignment at practice like you were supposed to the day before."
After one victim fell during practice, she told Geddert she couldn't sit up, according to Frost. Geddert pulled her into a sitting position anyway and said it was likely just a torn muscle. He made her do splits for the rest of practice because she was unable to participate in other activities, Frost said.
She later was diagnosed with fractured vertebrae.
Geddert was spotting another gymnast on the uneven bars when he grabbed her by the waist and "threw her into the bars," where she hit her face and neck, Frost said.
"The victim fell and hit the ground," the transcript said. "This caused her to rupture her lymph nodes in the right side of her neck, causing a black eye and tore her abdominal muscles."
On another occasion, Geddert "head-butted" a gymnast "and stomped on the top of her foot causing a severe injury to her foot," Frost said, according to the court transcript.
"The victim attempted to go to the locker room where Defendant Geddert followed her inside the locker room, screamed at her, took away her cell phone and threw it ...then slapped her rib cage, calling her a 'waste of talent," Frost said. "He spit and head-butted her and stomped on her bare feet with his shoes."
Some gymnasts who reported injuries to Geddert were ordered to see gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, according to the transcript.
For some defendants who left the Twistars owned by Geddert or went on to college teams, Geddert contacted their new coaches to degrade the athlete or suggest their scholarship be taken away, Frost said.
"Defendant Geddert has a pattern of stalking behavior, contacting the new gyms and the coaches to slander the victims," the agent said, according to the transcript.
Geddert criticized athletes for the weight, encouraging them to limit calories, including a 90-pound gymnast whom he told "just go kill yourself," according to Frost. Several gymnasts whose stories were detailed in court described Geddert screaming at them so loudly that he spat in their face.
As for lying to police, Frost told the judge that Geddert told investigators that Nassar was never alone with an athlete in the locker room at Twistars and said he'd never heard someone complain about Nassar's treatment.
"This was a lie," Frost said. "... As investigators learned that Defendant Geddert was in a vehicle in, sometime in 2011 with a victim who stated she had been sexually abused by Larry Nassar."
At the end of the hearing Wednesday, O'Neill authorized charges for the felony complaint in all but three human trafficking of a minor cases because the precise age of the victim was not disclosed at the time of the hearing. It appears the information was eventually gathered because an amended felony complaint contains the full 20 human trafficking violations.