[Update 2/25/21, 4:48 p.m.]: After being charged for his alleged crimes, Geddert died by suicide on Thursday, the Michigan Attorney General has confirmed.

Original Story:

John Geddert, a former head of the women’s Olympic gymnastic team with ties to disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, was charged Thursday in a Michigan court with multiple charges of sexual crimes.

Geddert was the head coach of the 2012 team that won a gold medal. The 63-year-old was charged in a Michigan court with dozens of crimes stemming from human trafficking, operating a criminal enterprise and sexual assault.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel scheduled a Thursday afternoon press conference to discuss the charges, though the allegations are not new. The Lansing State Journal reports officials started investigating Geddert in 2018, shortly after the USA team suspended him. The state attorney general’s office took over the case in 2019, the same year Nessel assumed office.

Among others, Geddert is accused of sexually assaulting a teen. He also allegedly lied to investigators in 2016 when asked about the behavior of Nassar, a former doctor for the Olympic team.

Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to up to 175 years in prison after more than 150 women and girls came forward to accuse the former doctor of sexual abuse spanning some two decades. In court, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina told Nassar she had just “signed his death warrant.”

One of Nassar’s accusers testified during his trial that Geddert knew as far back as the 1990s that the doctor performed an “inappropriate procedure” when she was a minor, though the former coach said he had “zero knowledge” of the crimes, The Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Suspended in 2018, Geddert told his family he was retiring.

“Like all of our coaches, I am deeply committed to protecting the safety and well-being of our students,” a departing letter cited by the Lansing-area WLNS read.

Additional charges of racketeering relate to allegations he trafficked several of his alleged victims for financial gain. Those charges are related to operations at his former training gym, Twistars.

"There is no excuse for you not knowing what was happening in your gym," gymnast Bailey Lorencen said in 2018, the Lansing newspaper reported.

If convicted, Geddert could face up to 35 years in prison, effectively a life sentence given his age.

Larry Nassar
Larry Nassar, a former team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual assault charges, stands in court during his sentencing hearing in the Eaton County Court in Charlotte, Michigan, Feb. 5, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
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