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Fox News
2 days ago
- Sport
- Fox News
FBI arrests US gymnastics academy coach accused of sexually abusing young girls on child porn charges
Last week the FBI arrested gymnastics coach Sean Gardner, 38, on a federal child pornography charge. The arrest comes more than three years after he was suspended from coaching at Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, for alleged sexual abuse. Court records obtained by The Associated Press show Gardner was accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts at Chow's and secretly recording others undressing in a gym bathroom at his previous place of employment at Jump'In Gymnastics & Tumbling in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Chow's is the gym where U.S. gymnast stars Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Gardner told the ABC affiliate WOI-TV in 2019 that his position at Chow's was the job he's "always wanted." "This is the job that I've always wanted. Chow is really someone I have looked up to since I've been coaching," Gardner told the station. "And you can tell when you step foot in the gym, just even from coaching the girls, the culture that he's built. It's amazing. It's beautiful." A year later, Gardner was promoted to director of Chow's Winter Classic, an annual meet that draws more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympics team during his four-year tenure at Chow's. Several of his students earned college gymnastics scholarships, but Gardner said he had bigger goals. "You want to leave a thumbprint on their life, so when they go off hopefully to school, to bigger and better things, that they remember Chow's as family," Gardner said in a 2020 interview with WOI-TV. Fox News Digital has reached out to Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute for comment. A girl reported to SafeSport in March 2022 that Gardner used "inappropriate spotting techniques" in which he would put his hands between her legs, the affidavit said. It said she alleged Gardner would ask girls if they were sexually active and call them "idiots, sluts, and whores." She said this behavior began after his hiring in 2018 and continued until she left the gym in 2020. She provided the names of six other potential victims. In April 2024, another of Chow's former athletes came forward to the West Des Moines Police Department to report abuse allegations, according to a now-sealed affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon. Gardner is now being detained at the Polk County Jail in Des Moines and will be transported to Mississippi to face the charge there, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service said. Among the evidence seized by investigators in late May was a cellphone, laptop and a desktop computer along with handwritten notes between Gardner and his former pupils, according to the sealed court documents. They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years of age, who were nude, using the toilet or changing into leotards, those documents show. Those images appear to have come from a hidden camera in a restroom. They also uncovered 50 video files and 400 photos, including some that appeared to be child pornography, according to the FBI affidavit. One video allegedly shows Gardner entering the bathroom and turning off the camera. Investigators also found images of an adult woman secretly filmed entering and exiting a bathtub, and identified her as Gardner's ex-girlfriend. That woman, as well as the gym's owner, Candi Workman, told investigators the images appeared to come from Jump'In Gymnastics' facility in Purvis, Mississippi. Gardner appeared in a Des Moines courtroom on Friday on a charge of producing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which can carry up to 30 years in prison.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Takeaways from AP's reporting on coach accused of abuse at renowned US gymnastics academy
More than three years after sexual abuse claims were first reported to authorities by his students, the FBI has arrested a former girls' coach at an elite U.S. gymnastics academy in Iowa on a child pornography charge. The abuse investigation into Sean Gardner, formerly of Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, is testing the reforms put in place after the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal rocked USA Gymnastics. An Associated Press review found that while Gardner was swiftly removed from coaching in 2022, a criminal investigation stalled, the public was kept in the dark about the claims, and Gardner was able to get a job at an Iowa hospital. Gardner faced multiple claims of sexual abuse by students over a period of years at Chow's, and had installed a hidden video camera at his former gym in Mississippi to record young girls using the bathroom, according to an FBI affidavit. Gardner hasn't returned AP messages seeking comment and a public defender assigned to represent him also didn't return messages. Accused coach worked at elite Iowa gym Gardner went to work at Chow's Gymnastics in 2018, saying he landed his dream job at the academy where U.S. gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas trained before becoming gold medalists at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He soon became director of Chow's Winter Classic, an annual meet that draws more than 1,000 gymnasts to Iowa. He also coached a junior Olympics team during his four-year tenure at Chow's, which was founded by Liang 'Chow' Qiao, a former Chinese gymnast who opened it after moving to the United States. Several of Gardner's students earned college gymnastics scholarships. Investigation began after sexual abuse reports in 2022 In March 2022, a girl reported to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a watchdog group created after the Nassar scandal to handle abuse investigations, that she had been sexually abused by Gardner, according to an FBI affidavit. The girl said that Gardner used inappropriate spotting techniques in which he would put his hands between her legs and touch and rub her vagina, during sessions between 2018 and when she left the gym in 2020, the affidavit says. Months later, another girl told SafeSport that Gardner had similarly sexually abused her during workouts and once dragged her across the carpet so hard that it caused burn marks on her buttocks, according to the affidavit. Those reports were shared with West Des Moines police, and SafeSport issued a temporary ban on Gardner from coaching for unspecified misconduct. But the criminal investigation quickly stalled after none of the girls stepped forward to pursue criminal charges. Criminal investigation took years to gain steam The investigation was dormant until April 2024, when another former student came forward to the West Des Moines police to report she was sexually abused by Gardner at Chow's. The AP is not identifying the student in line with its policy of not naming victims of alleged sexual abuse. The now 18-year-old told police she began taking lessons from Gardner when she was 11 or 12 in 2019, and she initially saw him as a father figure. Before she moved away in 2021, she told police, he gave her a hug and said she could text and follow him on Instagram and other social media sites, where he went by the nickname 'Coach Seanie,' because gym policy barring such contact no longer applied. She told police Gardner made her do inappropriate stretches that exposed her anus and vagina outside her leotard and that she suspected he used his cellphone to film her in that position. The teen told police that Gardner fondled her while spotting her, repeatedly touching her vagina. Gartner gave non-consensual hugs, rubbed her back and butt and discussed his sex life, she said. Police find videos and photos from hidden camera in Mississippi While serving a search warrant at Gardner's Iowa apartment in May, investigators seized a cellphone and computer equipment. They found images of girls, approximately 6 to 14 years in age, who were nude, using the toilet or changing into leotards, documents show. Those images appear to have come from a hidden camera in a restroom. Additional examination by the FBI uncovered videos that showed at least seven young girls using the gym bathroom at Jump'In Gymnastics in Purvis, Mississippi, where Gardner worked until 2018. On one of the videos Gardner is shown entering the bathroom and turning off the camera, the FBI says. The owner of the gym, Candi Workman, hasn't returned AP messages seeking comment. Gardner made an initial court appearance in Des Moines on Friday on a charge of producing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which can carry up to 30 years in prison. He was ordered detained pending further proceedings in Mississippi. During investigation, he got a job at an Iowa hospital As the investigation proceeded, Gardner said on his Facebook page he had landed a new job in May 2024 as a surgical technologist at MercyOne West Des Moines Medical Center. It's a role that calls for positioning patients on the operating room table, and assisting with procedures and post-surgery care. Asked about Gardner's employment, hospital spokesman Todd Mizener told the AP: 'The only information I can provide is that he is no longer' at the hospital.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump-Epstein latest: FBI agents were told to 'flag' any files that mentioned the president, Sen. Durbin says, as an Epstein accuser recalls an encounter with both men
While reviewing files related to the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, about 1,000 FBI agents were instructed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to "flag" any records that mentioned President Trump, according to Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In letters sent to Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Friday, Durbin said that his office had received information that the attorney general 'pressured' the agents to conduct a review of about 100,000 Epstein-related records on 24-hour shifts. 'These personnel were instructed to 'flag' any records in which President Trump was mentioned,' Durbin said. The effort, he added, was 'haphazardly supplemented by hundreds of FBI New York Field Office personnel, many of whom lacked the expertise to identify statutorily protected information regarding child victims and child witnesses.' Durbin concluded his letters by demanding to know why the agents were told to flag records in which Trump was mentioned and what happened to any such records that were flagged. He requested that Bondi and the top FBI officials provide any new information and materials related to the matter by Aug. 1. The fallout over Epstein The inquiry comes amid an ongoing fallout that has engulfed the Trump administration over its handling of the investigation into Epstein, who died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial. Epstein has long been the focus of unfounded conspiracy theories — fueled by Trump and some of his prominent supporters — which claim the disgraced financier was murdered to conceal the names of powerful people on a secret 'client list.' Trump said he would consider releasing additional government files on Epstein and directed the Justice Department to conduct an exhaustive review of any evidence collected in its investigation. Earlier this month, the DOJ and FBI released a two-page joint memo, concluding Epstein 'committed suicide in his cell" and had no such 'client list' and that "no further disclosures" were warranted in the case. The memo enraged Trump supporters, who accused the president and his administration of breaking their promise to release all of the Epstein files, and it put Trump's relationship with Epstein back in the spotlight. Last week Trump lashed out at his supporters for their focus on what he now describes as the 'Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.' On Friday, the president sued the Wall Street Journal over a report that he sent Epstein a racy birthday letter. He then directed Bondi to unseal grand jury testimony in Epstein's criminal case. Epstein accuser says she told FBI about an encounter with Trump The New York Times reported Sunday that Maria Farmer, a former Epstein employee and accuser, had told the New York Police Department and the FBI about an encounter she said she had with Trump in Epstein's office: The encounter with Mr. Trump, Ms. Farmer said, occurred in 1995 as she was preparing to work for Mr. Epstein. She said she told the authorities that late one night, Mr. Epstein unexpectedly called her to his offices in a luxury building in Manhattan, and she arrived in running Trump then arrived, wearing a business suit, and started to hover over her, she said she told the Farmer said she recalled feeling scared as Mr. Trump stared at her bare legs. Then Mr. Epstein entered the room, and she recalled him saying to Mr. Trump: 'No, no. She's not here for you.' Farmer told the Times that she had no other alarming interactions with Trump and did not see him engage in any inappropriate conduct. The White House denied the account of the meeting in Epstein's office while pointing to Trump's assertion that he had a falling out with Epstein years before his 2019 arrest and ultimately banned him from Mar-a-Lago. 'The president was never in his office,' White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement to the paper. 'The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep.' Pressure from Republicans and Democrats in Congress Meanwhile, there is increasing bipartisan pressure from Congress for more transparency from the Trump administration on the Epstein matter. Appearing on ABC's This Week on Sunday, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee called the possible unsealing of grand jury material a 'good start' but made clear he wants the release of as many files as possible. Burchett is one of at least 10 House Republicans to join an effort launched by Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to force a symbolic vote on whether the Trump administration should release all of the Epstein files. Congress does not have the authority to compel the Justice Department to release the files, but any vote would amount to a loyalty test among House Republicans regarding the Epstein case. Last week, Trump said Republicans "got duped" by Democrats on the Epstein conspiracies. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., scoffed at the idea Democrats were to blame for Trump's Epstein troubles. 'The president blaming Democrats for this disaster is like that CEO that got caught on camera blaming Coldplay,' Klobuchar said on CNN's State of the Union Sunday. 'This is of his own making.'
