The US gymnastics world was only recovering from a disastrous sexual abuse scam, when a promising young coach went from Mississippi to work in an elite academy in 2018, known for training the Olympic Champion.
Liang “Chow”, owner of Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute at West Des Moines, thought a lot about his new fare, Scene Gardner, so that he was in charge of the club’s premiere junior event and some of his most promising girls to coach.
But four years later, Gardner went with a little notice from Chow.
The USA gymnastics, the organization shook the Larry Naser Sex-War-Word Crisis, which led to the construction of the US Center for Safsport, was informed by the Watchdog Group that Gardner was suspended from all contact with the gymnast.
The reason for Gardner’s removal was not revealed. But the court records specially received by the Associated Press Show were accused of sexually abusing at least three young gymnasts of Chow and other people were secretly recorded in the gym bathroom in their former job in Mississippi.
Last week, more than three years after being suspended from coaching, the FBI arrested 38 -year -old gardner on a federal child pornography fee. But his disciplinary case is still not resolved by Safesport, which handles cases of sex-behavior in the Olympic Games.
In cases like Gardner, the public can be in darkness for years, while safSport investigation and restriction coach. It is necessary for Safesport that the police are accused to ensure that the drug addicts do not run uncontrolled, but critics say the system is a slow, marki process.
“From an external operating scene, it seems that if safsport is involved in any way, the situation shines in-the-dock becomes toxic,” Attorney Steve Silve said, a long time safSport critic, who has represented people in matters associated with the center.
Scott McFetrids / AP 
Accepting that it could be delayed as an investigation, Safesport defends its temporary suspension in a statement when “a unique and valuable intervention” when there is anxiety for others.
Nevertheless, in 2024, Gardner was able to help in taking care of surgical patients at Iowa Hospital, two years later allegations of misconduct against him were informed to SafSort and police.
And it was not until the end of May that West Des Mine Police carried out a search warrant at their home, eventually showing court records on their computer and nude young girls’ cellphones for recovering a trove of photos and videos.
In Iowa, officials sealed the court documents after being asked about the investigation earlier this month, before the details of the federal charge were made public on Friday. In Mississippi, Gardner, Kiao and former employer of Gardner did not respond to AP requests for comments.
“The work I always wanted”
Chow’s gymnastics is known as an academy where US gymnast Sean johnson And Gabby Douglas Trained before becoming a gold medalist at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Kiao opened the gym in 1998 after acting in the Chinese national team and going to the United States for coach at the University of Iowa. The gym became a draw for the top youth gymnast, in which some families were going to Iowa for training there.
Gardner moved to Iowa in September 2018, jumped on the occasion of the coach under Qo.
“This is the work I always wanted. Chow is actually someone I have seen since coaching,” Gardner told ABC affiliated Woi-TV in 2019. “And you can tell that when you step into the gym, just girls also coaching, which has been created by coaching. It is amazing. It’s beautiful.”
A year later, Gardner was promoted as the director of Chaw’s Winter Classic, an annual meeting that attracts over 1,000 gymnasts for Iowa. He also granted coaching to a junior Olympic team during his four -year tenure in Chow.
Many of his students earned college gymnastics scholarship, but Gardner said that he had big goals.
“You want to leave a thumbprint on your life, so when they go for bigger and better things when they go to school, they remember Chow’s family,” he said in an interview with Woi-Tv in 2020.
Coach accused of sexual misconduct in Iowa, Mississippi
Gardner is accused of misusing his position in Chouz and in Mississippi to hunt girls in Jampin Gymnastics in Gymnastics under his protection, according to the nine-position FBI affidavits released on Friday, which summarizes the allegations against them.
Iowa Department of Karekss / AP 
A girl informed Safesport in March 2022 that Gardner used “inappropriate spotting techniques”, in which he would lay hands between her feet and touch her vagina, the affidavit said.
She said that she alleges that Gardner would ask the girls if they are sexually active and call them “stupid, slots and prostitutes”. He said that the behavior began after his work in 2018 and continued until the exit from the gym in 2020 and gave the names of six other possible victims.
Safesport suspended Gardner in July 2022 – four months after the girl’s report – an provisional step can take it in serious cases, as the investigation proceeded with “adequate clear support”.
A month later, the Center received a report from another girl in which additional “sexual contact and physical abuse” was accused in which Gardner liked her during a similar workout, said FBI affidavit. The girl said that she once pulled her across the carpet that she burnt her buttocks.
Safesport shared the report with the West Des Moines Police, requiring adults to suit their policy to interact with young athletes for law enforcement to disclose possible criminal cases.
While Safesport’s suspension dropped Gardner from gymnastics, the criminal investigation quickly reached a road.
Police records show that a detective told Safesport that the alleged victims were urged to file criminal complaints, but only one mother contacted the police in 2022. The woman said that her daughter did not want to pursue criminal allegations, and the police suspended the investigation.
Kane Lang, a retired spy at the University of Miligan and Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, said that victims of misconduct are often reluctant to cooperate with the police.
“In this case you have the reputation of this feature,” he said. “Do they want to add their names to the way, thus when their aspirations were to succeed in gymnastics?”
The police suspended the investigation, even Gardner was on probation for his second crime of driving while drunk.
A passive case opened again, and a year later, a arrest
According to an affidavit signed by police detective Jeff Lyon, the case remained inactive till April 2024 till April 2024 when another former Chow student came forward to report allegations of misconduct in West Des Mine Police Department. The AP is not in accordance with his policy of not giving the student victims of alleged sexual abuse.
Now the 18-year-old told the police that she had started taking a lesson from Gardner when she was 11 or 12 years old, initially she used to see her as a “Father Figure”, who tried to help her through her parents’ divorce. She told her that she could tell her “anything”, the affidavit said.
When she moved in 2021, she told the police, she hugged her and said that she could follow and follow her on Instagram and other social media sites, where she went with a “coach Sunny” surname, as the gym policy was no longer implemented except for such contact.
According to a summary of his statement in Leon’s affidavit, he said that Gardner loved him during practice, repeatedly touching his vagina; Rubbed her back and butt and discussed her sex life; And gave him an inappropriate stretch that exposed his privatization.
He told the police that he suspected that he used his cellphone to film in that situation.
Arrived by AP, Kishore’s mother refused to comment. The mother told the police that she was interested in a monetary disposal with Chow as Jim was informed about the complaints and did not do anything to stop them, “according to Leon’s affidavit. Jim did not return the AP message seeking comments.
16 months after Kishore’s 2024 report to arrest the FBI to Gardner, who presented in a preliminary court in Des Mine on Friday, who sexually carried out the visual depiction of minors engaged in clear conduct, which can be taken into jail for 30 years. Has assigned to represent a public defender, did not return the AP messages seeking comments.
It is not clear why the investigation took so much time for the investigation and also that the FBI, who had to pay $ 138 million to the Naser’s victims for that investigation, joined the investigation.
The evidence seized by the investigators at the end of May was according to a cellphone, laptop and a desktop computer with handwritten notes between Gardner and his former students, according to the court documents.
They found images of girls, at the age of about 6 to 14 years, who were naked, using the toilet or turning into letters, showing the documents. Those images came from a hidden camera in a toilet.
According to the FBI affidavit, he also highlighted 50 video files and 400 photographs, which showed any hair pornography. A video features Gardner to allegedly enter the bathroom and close the camera.
Investigators also filmed images of an adult woman to secretly enter a bathtub and get out, and recognized her as Gardner’s ex -girlfriend. Along with the woman, the owner of the gym, Candy Workman, told the investigators that the images have come from the facility of jampin gymnastics in Mississippi’s Pivis, which has since been closed.
There are limitations of power of safesport
Safesport has long stated that it can distribute restrictions in cases where criminal allegations are not carried forward as the key to their mission. However, Gardner’s ability to work in health care reflects the limitations of that power: it can restrict people from sports but that approval is not guaranteed to reach the general public.
Not commenting directly about Gardner’s case, it is said in a statement to AP why many issues may take so much time to close cases, including 8,000 reports, it only receives a year with 30 full -time investigators. This has modified some processes, said, in an attempt to become more efficient.
“While the center is capable and often supports the law enforcement investigation,” it is not necessary to confirm the information to the law enforcement, update, or even an inquiry. “
USA Gymnastics President Lee Lee Leung said “really tough, navigate,” said.
“I would like to see more stability with their results and restrictions,” said Leoung. “I would like to see more standardization on things. I would like to see more communication, more transparency on their behalf.”
A case that does gender, even after the safesport ban
As soon as the investigation went ahead, Gardner said on his Facebook page that he had done a new job as a surgical technologist at the Mercyon West Des Moines Medical Center in May 2024. It is a role that asks patients to position on the operating room table, and assist in procedures and subsequent care after surgery.
When asked about Gardner’s employment, the hospital spokesman Tod Mizenner told AP: “The only information I can provide is that he is no longer in the hospital”.
Meanwhile, the case is gender, remains in Limbo after more than three years of the safSport center and the police first learned about it.
“Safesport is now part of a large problem instead of a solution, if it was ever a solution,” Attorney Silve said. “The most fundamental professional tasks such as coordination with local or federal law enforcement are now bottled hundreds of times a year.”
