Ex-U.S. Gymnastics Coach With Ties To Dr. Larry Nassar Facing Charges

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Prosecutors in Michigan filed charges Thursday against a former U.S. Olympics gymnastics coach with ties to disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar.

Details about the charges against John Geddert were not immediately known. But the documents were filed in Eaton County District Court, deputy court administrator Kathy Brooks told The Associated Press.

Geddert was head coach of the 2012 U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team, which won a gold medal. Nassar  was the team’s doctor and also treated injured gymnasts at Twistars, Geddert’s Lansing-area gym for elite athletes.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel scheduled an afternoon news conference.

A message seeking comment was left with Geddert’s attorney.

Geddert has insisted he had “zero knowledge” of Nassar’s crimes, although some gymnasts said  he forced them to see Nassar and was physically abusive. Nassar, who was a doctor at Michigan State University, has been sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts at the school and elsewhere as well as possessing child pornography.

During Nassar’s sentencing,  a woman said Geddert was aware in the late 1990s that Nassar had performed an “inappropriate procedure” on her when she was 16. A prosecutor read that accuser’s anonymous statement in court.

Geddert was suspended by Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics during the Nassar scandal. He told families in 2018 that he was retiring.

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White reported from Detroit.

Nichols is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America  is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.