Mass. gymnastics coach faces voyeurism charge after stint at Waterbury gym in July
August 8, 2023 | By Lisa ScagliottiEditor’s note: This post was updated with information from USA Gymnastics.
A Massachusetts man is facing a charge of voyeurism after Vermont State Police say he made video recordings in July of underage girls in a bathroom at a Waterbury gymnastics gym where he was a visiting coach.
In a news release on Monday, Detective Trooper Mathew Nadeau explains how state police received a report on July 15 regarding video recordings said to have come from the bathroom at Central Vermont Gymnastics Academy in downtown Waterbury.
“With the assistance from the North Adams Police Department in Massachusetts, a computer believed to contain these recordings was seized from a visiting gymnastics coach Jonathan Girard,” Nadeau said.
The matter was referred to detectives in the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Nadeau said. Digital forensics analysis identified evidence that the crime of voyeurism took place during the week of July 10-14, according to police.
On Monday, 39-year-old Girard of North Adams, Massachusetts, was issued a citation through his attorney and he is scheduled to appear for arraignment on Thursday in the Criminal Division of Vermont Superior Court in Barre, police said.
Central Vermont Gymnastics Academy is owned by Anissa Davis, who also is head coach of the Harwood Union gymnastics program. The gym has been in Waterbury and Moretown in various locations for more than a decade. It runs youth gymnastics classes, afterschool programs and summer camps, and trains gymnasts for competitive teams. The gym also serves as the home base for the Harwood gymnastics program.
Davis referred comments regarding the Girard case to her attorney Christina Nolan who responded to Waterbury Roundabout noting that they would not comment at this time as the case is still under investigation.
According to a LinkedIn listing online, Girard is the owner of J Star Gymnastics in North Adams.
The Berkshire Eagle newspaper in Massachusetts reported on the case on Monday. It said that J Star has been in business since 2010 and that Girard on the J Star website was described as “a Level 3 certified Junior Olympic Team Coach and is certified in safety and risk management by USA Gymnastics, the sport's governing body.”
The J Star website by Monday night had only one page of information from 2019 posted publicly and its Facebook page was not available to view.
On Tuesday, according to the website for USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Center for SafeSport, Girard is listed as “suspended from all contact” on a list of suspended and restricted persons with cases that are pending resolution. Based in Indianapolis, USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Headquartered in Denver, the U.S. Center for Safe Sport is an independent nonprofit entity directed by Congress to prevent and respond to all forms of abuse and misconduct within the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Movement. The entry for Girard on the list does not specify a date when it was added.
The Eagle’s report refers to an affidavit by Det. Nadeau that it says describes how Girard’s fiancee found images on Girard’s computer. It says that after investigation, the images were confirmed to be of several underage girls changing in the Waterbury gym’s bathroom. It also notes that Davis and her son who works at the gym cooperated with police in the investigation.