Former coach at the famous American Gymnastics Academy arrested for images of child sexual abuse | Gymnastics

The U.S. gymnastics world has only recovered from a devastating sexual abuse scandal, when promising young coaches moved from Mississippi to Iowa, working at an elite academy known for training Olympic champions in 2018.

Liang” Chow, owner of Chow gymnastics The Dance Academy in West Des Moines has taken a high level of thinking about his new employee Sean Gardner to put him in charge of the club’s main junior events and coach some of the most promising girls.

But four years later, Gardner emanated from Chow’s and barely noticed.

The American gymnastics, a group shocked by Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse crisis, led to the creation of the American SafeSport Center.

The reason for Gardner’s dismissal was not disclosed. But court records only show by the Associated Press that the coach was accused of sexually abused at least three young gymnasts at Chow’s and secretly recorded others undressing in the gym bathroom during his previous job in Mississippi.

Last week, the FBI was arrested last week on federal image charges of child sexual abuse and arrested Gardner, 38, after being suspended for three years. However, SafeSport has not yet resolved his disciplinary action, which handles sexual assault cases in the Olympics.

If there is a situation like Gardner’s, the public can be in a dark state for years while SafeSport conducts investigations and sanctions coaches. SafeSport demanded that the allegations be reported to police to ensure that the abuser is not subject to any inspection outside of sports, but critics say the system is a slow and vague process.

“From an external operational point of view, if SafeSport is involved in any way, the situation turns into darkness and toxicity,” said Steve Silvey, a lawyer attorney, a longtime critic of SafeSport critic who represents people involved in the case at the center.

While it acknowledged that there may be delays as the investigation unfolds, Safesport defended in its statement that its temporary suspension was a “unique and valuable intervention” when it comes to concerns about the risks of others.

Still, in 2024, Gardner was able to find a job to help care for surgical patients in an Iowa hospital — allegations of abuse against him and police reportedly reported.

Court records show that until late May, West Des Moines police executed a search warrant at his home, which eventually led to the recovery of photos and videotapes on his computer and the naked young girl’s cell phone.

Iowa authorities sealed the court’s documents before revealing details of federal charges Friday after the Associated Press asked about the investigation earlier this month. Gardner, Qiao and Gardner’s former employers in Mississippi did not respond to AP’s request for comment.

Chow’s gymnasts trained in American gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Qiao opened a gymnasium in 1998 after starring in the Chinese national team and moving to the United States coach of the University of Iowa. The gymnasium became an attraction for top young gymnasts, with some families moving to Iowa to train there.

Gardner moved to Iowa in September 2018 and seized the opportunity to coach under Qiao.

Gardner told ABC member WOI-TV in 2019: “This is the job I always wanted. Chow is really the person I’ve always looked up to. You can tell you when to step into the gym, even from coaching girls, the culture he built, it’s the culture he built.

A year later, Gardner was promoted to director of Chow’s Winter Classic, an annual conference that attracted more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympic team during his four-year tenure at Chow.

Several of his students received college gymnastics scholarships, but Gardner said he had a bigger goal.

“You want to leave an indicator for their lives, so when they want to go to school, bigger, better things, they remember when Chow was a family,” he said in an interview with WOI-TV in 2020.

Gardner is accused of misusing his position at Jump’in Gymnastics, Mississippi, and formerly working in Jump’in gymnastics in Mississippi, predating girls.

A girl reportedly used “inappropriate discovery technology” to SafeSport in March 2022 by Gardner, who placed his hands between her legs and touched her vagina, said the affidavit.

It said she claimed that Gardner would ask the girl if she was sexually active and called “idiots, sluts and prostitutes.” She said the behavior began hiring in 2018 and continued until leaving the gym in 2020 and provided the names of six other potential victims.

SafeSport in July 2022 – suspended Gardner four months after the girl’s report – as the investigation proceeds, it can take temporary steps with “sufficient evidence to support” in serious cases.

The FBI affidavit said the center received reports from another girl accusing other “sexual contact and physical abuse” including Gardner stroking her similarly during exercises. The affidavit says the girl said he had dragged her to the carpet to burn her ass.

SafeSport shared the report with West Des Moines police, a policy requiring adults interacting with young athletes to disclose potential criminal cases to law enforcement.

Although SafeSport’s suspension took Gardner out of gymnastics, the criminal investigation quickly encountered obstacles.

Police records show a detective told Safeport that the alleged victims were urging criminal proceedings, but only one of their mothers contacted police in 2022. The woman said her daughter did not want to file criminal charges and police suspended the investigation.

Ken Lang, a retired detective and associate professor of criminal justice at Milligan University, said victims of abuse are often reluctant to work with police.

“In this case, you have the reputation of this facility,” he said. “Do they want to connect their names in this way when they succeed in gymnastics?”

Police suspended investigations, even though Gardner was suspended for his second driving probation while drunk.

The case remained dormant until April 2024, when another student from the previous week stepped up to report allegations of abuse, according to an affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon. The Associated Press did not identify students based on its policy of not naming victims of alleged sexual abuse.

The 18-year-old told police she started classes from Gardner at the age of 11 or 12 in 2019, initially viewing him as a “father’s character” in an attempt to help her pass her parents’ divorce. The affidavit says he told her she could tell him “anything.”

When she moved in 2021, she told police that he gave her a hug and said she could text and follow him on Instagram and other social media sites, where he was nicknamed “Coach Seanie” because the fitness policy was no longer adopted unless the sports policy for such connections is no longer applicable.

According to a summary of the statement she provided in Lyon’s affidavit, she said Gardner stroked her during exercise, repeatedly touching her vagina. Rubbing her back and ass and discussing his sex life. And make her do improper stretching, making her personal last.

She told police she suspected he was filming her at that location with his cell phone.

The teen’s mother turned down the Associated Press. The mother told police she was interested in Chow’s currency settlement because the gym “had been aware of the complaints, but they didn’t stop them.” The gym did not return AP messages seeking comments.

After the teenager’s 2024 report, the FBI arrested Gardner, he was responsible for producing visual descriptions of minors, engaging in sexual acts that can accommodate up to 30 years in prison for 16 months after his appearance in Des Moines on Friday. The public defender designated to represent him did not return AP messages seeking comments.

It is unclear why the case would require such a long investigation and when the FBI would have to pay Nassar’s victims $138 million to investigate to investigate, thus participating in the case.

According to sealed court documents, evidence investigators caught in late May included cell phones, laptops and desktop computers, and handwritten notes between Gardner and his former students.

The documents show that they found images of girls aged about 6 to 14, which were nude, using a toilet or turning into a leotard. These images appear to be from hidden cameras in the bathroom.

The FBI affidavit said they also found 50 video files and 400 photos, including some that appeared to be images of child sexual abuse. A video allegedly showed Gardner entering the bathroom and turning off the camera.

Investigators also found images of an adult woman secretly taking and exiting the bathtub and identified her as Gardner’s ex-girlfriend. The woman and the gym owner Candi Workman told investigators that the images appear to be from the beating gymnastics facility in Purvis, Mississippi, which has been closed.

SafeSport has long touted that it can impose sanctions without being a criminal charge that is critical to its mission. But Gardner’s ability to find a job in the healthcare field illustrates the limitations of this power: It can ban people from sporting, but there is no guarantee that the sanctions will attract the public.

While no comment directly on Gardner’s case, it said in a statement to the AP that many problematic factors could take so long to close, including 8,000 reports received a year, with only about 30 full-time investigators. It said it has modified some programs to improve efficiency.

“While the Centre has the capacity and often collaborates in law enforcement investigations, law enforcement does not need to share information, update, or even confirm that an investigation is underway,” it said.

US Gymnastics President Li Li Leung called the center’s mission “really difficult and difficult to navigate.”

“I want to see their results consistent with the sanctions,” Liang said. “I want to see more standardization about things. I want to see more communication, more transparency.”

As the investigation progressed, Gardner said on his Facebook page that he found a new job as a surgical technologist at the Mercyone West Des Moines Medical Center in May 2024. This role calls for the positioning of patients on the operating room table and assist with surgical and post-operative care.

“The only information I can provide is that he is no longer a hospital,” hospital spokesman Todd Mizener told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the case has been wandering for more than three years after the SafeSport Center and police first learned about this.

“SafeSport is now part of a bigger problem, not part of the solution,” said attorney Silvey. “Currently, coordination with local or federal law enforcement hundreds of times a day is the most basic task, such as coordination with local or federal law enforcement.”