Jenny Brannan answered the phone, and 20 years of fear bubbled to the surface with the caller’s first question: "Do you know who Ray Adams is?"
Silence.
The Missouri woman spent most of her life trying to forget that name. In 1993, when she was 12, she accused the charismatic gymnastics coach of sexually abusing her. But the case never went to court.
Now a Florida prosecutor was on the phone, asking Brannan to share her story. Adams had hurt another little girl.
Brannan’s first thought: "He's still doing it?"
He was.
Brannan would eventually learn that Adams had been accused of inappropriate conduct involving 15 other girls. Over the years, he had worked in at least a dozen gyms in four states. He had been fired at least six times. He had been criminally charged four times. Once he was acquitted. Another time he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for abusing four little girls. Now he was facing two new criminal prosecutions in Florida.
Yet, somehow, Adams kept getting hired, even by elite gyms that produced Olympians for USA Gymnastics.
Adams' case — more than any other uncovered in a nine-month IndyStar investigation — demonstrates the breadth of flaws in the apparatus of the USA Gymnastics network and a culture of secrecy that has enabled sexual predators to continue coaching.
Again and again, girls he targeted didn't recognize the abuse or were too scared or embarrassed to report it. Parents declined to prosecute, fearing further trauma to their children. Gym owners didn't recognize the signs of abuse or worried that reporting it would hurt their businesses. And USA Gymnastics, the sport’s national governing body, doesn't enforce strict standards or effectively track potential predators as they move through a system of 3,400 independent gyms.
No one wanted to give Ray Adams ready access to victims for 16 years. But the events that occurred between Brannan’s first encounter with Adams and the call she would receive two decades later point to a stark reality: America’s gyms are failing at every level to protect the children under their watch.
1993
ALL AMERICAN GYMNASTICS, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
Brannan told IndyStar she met Adams in the early 1990s at All American Gymnastics in St. Louis.
At 5 feet 10 inches, the coach seemed tall to Brannan, who was a petite elementary school student. Adams, then in his early 20s, was slender and full of energy, Brannan recalled during an interview with IndyStar. He showed off with a series of round-offs and back flips.
The girls he coached adored him. Adams acted silly, laughed with them and asked questions about school and boyfriends. He also chatted with gymnasts’ parents.
IndyStar typically does not name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent.
Brannan, whom IndyStar agreed to identify by her maiden name, said she trusted Adams. So she said she brushed it off when he stood over her as she did the splits in a handstand. She dismissed it as weird when Adams’ thumb rubbed her nipple as he spotted her on bars.
That trust shattered during a private lesson in 1993, Brannan would later testify in court. She struggled to hit a tumbling pass. Adams asked what was wrong, and when she answered, he replied, “I can’t hear you. Let’s go into the office.”
Away from others in the gym. Adams closed the door.
“Sit in my lap,” he invited. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
He placed his hand above her knee, she testified. He asked if it tickled or gave her goose bumps.
“No,” she said.
Adams slid his hand higher. Does this tickle?
“No.”
He pulled her leotard to the side and touched her vagina. Does this?
“No.”
He put his finger inside her. Brannan said she knew it was wrong. She wanted him to stop but didn’t say it.
“I was raised that you don’t really question authority,” she said.
Brannan said she thinks Adams stopped because he realized she was getting upset. They finished practice as if nothing had happened.
At first, Brannan didn’t tell anyone. She didn’t know what to say.
A couple of weeks later, while Brannan’s classmates played on the swings and tossed a ball during recess, she stood off to one side of the playground, crying.
A friend came over and asked what was wrong. Brannan shared what Adams had done.
“Don’t tell anybody,” she said.
But that friend told her mom, who called Brannan’s mom. Brannan’s mother met with Anna Lum, who owned the gym until 1998. Brannan’s mother made it clear she didn’t want to press charges. But she wanted Adams fired.
Despite concerns, Lum said she honored the request. She fired Adams but didn’t contact police.
She also adopted a new sexual harassment policy that specifically prohibited gymnasts from being in the room where the alleged abuse took place.
“I was just too naïve,” she said.
Brannan’s mother, who was present during IndyStar’s interview with her daughter, declined to be interviewed. Brannan said her mother was trying to protect her.
“It was kind of done,” Brannan said. “Like, we didn’t talk about it.”
Adams was far from done.
1994
SCOTT’S GYMNASTICS, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
Kevin Scott, then-owner of Scott’s Gymnastics in St. Louis, heard concerns among people in the gymnastics community that Adams was too friendly with kids.
But Adams had the potential to be an exceptional coach, Scott told IndyStar. Scott hired Adams in 1994 with the understanding that Adams would follow rules that were “10 times stricter” than those imposed on other employees. Among them: No kid sits on your lap, no hugs, no being alone with a gymnast, no pictures of kids.
“I was very, very clear about what was acceptable and what was not acceptable,” Scott said.
He said Adams was a talented coach who was “a master” at developing rapport with his gymnasts’ mothers. He took them to lunch and complimented them.
“He was able to kind of build up those moms, make them feel good about themselves,” Scott recalled. “Give them some attention they were needing, and they soaked it up.”
But, soon, some parents complained about Adams’ “physical and verbal treatment of children,” including possible inappropriate touching as he spotted gymnasts on uneven bars during practice.
Scott told IndyStar he didn’t call police because the accusations weren’t criminal in nature, but they were too much for him.
“Dude, you gotta go,” Scott said he told the coach.
1994-1996
METRO SPORTS, ALTON, ILLINOIS
On July 1, 1994, Adams surfaced at Metro Sports, an athletic facility just over the state line in Alton, Illinois.
Once again, Adams’ engaging personality was good for business. He would hop on the front counter and flirt with mothers. He complimented their clothes, hair and nails. And his gymnastics routines for students were “creative and exciting,” Metro Sports owner Barbara McAfoos recalled.
“I probably made more income off Ray Adams than any other instructor I’ve ever had in our gymnastics and dance studio,” she told IndyStar.
But by his second year of employment, she noticed warning signs. Adams once joked to her that he could wrap his penis around his neck, McAfoos said. When she chastised him for the remark, he replied: “I thought we were closer than that.”
Adams also was giving gifts to gymnasts. And a father removed his three children from the gym, complaining Adams was too touchy. Adams would playfully poke little girls in the stomach, asking “what’s that on your shirt?” Then he’d flick their noses.
A coach from another Alton facility told McAfoos that Adams had been fired from All American Gymnastics.
“At the time, it’s kind of like you don’t want to know,” she said. “He was such an outstanding instructor. I just really didn’t want to know.”
Then, in March 1996, a gymnast on Adams’ competition team abruptly quit. McAfoos said it was unusual because it was a few months before the end of the dance season and the family had already paid for the recital and costumes. So she called the girl’s mother.
The mother put her daughter on speakerphone. The girl said Adams told her to go into a small office to try on a leotard. Then he came in to “see whether or not it fit.” He pulled the leotard from side to side and felt her crotch, according to court records.
The girl told him to stop.
His reply: “I thought we were closer than this.”
The words rang true to McAfoos, who had heard them before. But she didn’t call police.
McAfoos’ plan was to get through the dance season and let Adams go. That would be it.
“I was afraid of this getting out,” she said. “I was afraid of this ruining my studio.”
She and her husband confronted Adams about the allegations in March 1996. They told him his time at the gym would be over at the end of the dance season. The season ended three months later, in June 1996, and Adams was gone.
Soon after, McAfoos said, she received a letter from an attorney representing Adams. It warned he would sue if she divulged anything negative about him.
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September 1996
CENTER STAGE DANCE STUDIO, IMPERIAL, MISSOURI
In the weeks that followed, Adams started giving private lessons to a 13-year-old he previously coached at another gym.
Within a few months, on Sept. 16, 1996, the family contacted the St. Louis County Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department.
The girl told police that during a drive to Center Stage Dance Studio in Imperial, Adams asked “if her boyfriend had ever felt her up or felt her down.”
“No,” she replied.
Then Adams asked whether she’d seen her boyfriend’s penis.
“No.”
According to police records, he then asked if she would like to see his penis.
“No.”
“Well, that’s a shame,” Adams replied, “because you are going to be disappointed when you do get to see your boyfriend’s penis.”
When they got to the dance studio, Adams pulled her leotard down to her hips and began massaging her stomach, the girl told police. It stopped when the gym owner arrived.
“I wish that she would hurry and leave so we could be alone,” Adams told the girl, according to her account to police.
That night, the girl told her parents. They were adamant that something be done to prevent Adams from doing something similar to other girls.
Police officials from Jefferson and St. Louis counties pursued arrest warrants for Adams, but prosecutors in both jurisdictions declined to file criminal charges.
Ed Magee, executive assistant for the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office, said he could not provide information on the case because the court records are closed. Under Missouri law, records are closed if the prosecutor’s office declines to pursue criminal charges or the defendant is acquitted.
November 1996
METRO SPORTS, ALTON, ILLINOIS
Around that time, Adams was teaching children at Jeanie’s Rainbow Connection in Centralia, Illinois, and at an unknown studio across the state line in St. Louis, according to a report from the Alton Police Department.
McAfoos, the owner of Metro Sports in Illinois, was still grappling with her own decision not to report Adams. By Thanksgiving of 1996 she was concerned enough to discuss the situation with her sister-in-law, who warned that she needed to report suspected child abuse.
“I’m telling you now, you need to turn him in,” McAfoos’ sister-in-law insisted. “If there’s any indication you knew anything, you’ll lose everything you have.”
McAfoos called the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Dec. 6, 1996. Child welfare officials forwarded the report to the Alton Police Department, and both agencies launched investigations.
About a month later, on Jan. 21, 1997, the father of the girl from Metro Sports told police he didn’t want to go forward with the case. He said it would mentally harm his daughter because “she has had dreams about the incident.”
The case was reopened later that year after other gymnasts’ families reported Adams to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Alton Police Chief Jason Simmons said.
In September 1997, Alton police requested an interview with Adams.
During the interview, police told Adams that several young girls had accused him of exposing their breasts and vaginas. Adams didn’t deny it, according to police. Instead, he nodded.
“What can I do to take care of this?” Adams asked. “I am willing to do my part and take care of it.”
The detective told Adams to stop molesting children, confess what he’d done, seek counseling and quit working with children. Adams agreed to quit his gymnastics job but said he needed to leave at the end of the year because he’d already been paid, according to a police report.
When the detective asked Adams for a written confession, Adams’ attorney intervened and said he wouldn’t allow Adams to sign a statement unless a prosecutor was involved. He didn’t want his client to have a felony conviction.
Police and prosecutors scheduled a meeting with Adams and his attorney for early October 1997. As that investigation lingered, Adams continued coaching at a YMCA in the St. Louis area.
1997-1998
YMCA, METRO ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
A 7-year-old girl at the YMCA said she and her teammates sat in a circle under the uneven bars and played duck, duck, goose. The winner got to sit in Adams’ lap.
“It was something, you know, he wanted you to work for,” the girl said in a deposition taken 15 years later during an unrelated criminal case. “It was something that he wanted you to try to win.”
The girl said Adams rubbed her stomach, chest and vagina while she was on his lap in front of other girls at the gym. She said he kept talking as though nothing was happening.
A Gateway Region YMCA spokesman said the organization could not locate Adams’ employment record because it does not keep data that old.
At the time, the girl said, she didn’t know it was wrong. Adams remained her coach, she said, until he was arrested in May 1998.
1998-2000
ALTON, ILLINOIS
McAfoos’ fears about the potential impact on her business were soon laid to rest.
Prosecutors charged Adams with four felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The 27-year-old was accused of inappropriately touching four Metro Sports gymnasts, all younger than 13. Assistant State Attorney Amy Maher told a local newspaper that Adams may have abused as many as eight girls.
When the news came out, McAfoos said, she didn’t lose a single student.
“It had no effect on my business because I turned him in,” she said. “I’m glad that I did.”
Brannan, the Missouri girl who said Adams abused her at All American Gymnastics, learned about the criminal charges and immediately contacted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. I want to testify, the then-17-year-old told the Alton Police Department.
But she wouldn’t get a chance, not then.
The Illinois girls’ parents did not allow their children to cooperate with the prosecution, according to a prosecutor who reviewed Adams’ criminal history. Nearly two years later, in February 2000, prosecutors agreed to drop the felony charges as part of a plea agreement. Adams pleaded guilty to four counts of misdemeanor battery and was ordered to pay a fine.
2001-2003
CAMELOT MUSIC, CHESTERFIELD, MISSOURI
A month after his guilty plea, Adams started talking with a preteen girl who frequented Camelot Music, where he worked at the Chesterfield Mall in Missouri, according to police records.
On Dec. 2, 2001, the girl stopped by the store and Adams invited her to join him in the office while he ate lunch.
“Do you ever think about me?” the girl recalled Adams asking. The girl, who was then 14, told him she didn’t, other than when she was at the mall and considering whether she should stop by to say “hi.”
Adams moved his left hand behind her head and pulled her toward him. The girl told police Adams kissed her, tried to put his tongue in her mouth and slid his hand under her untucked shirt to touch her breasts through her bra.
She pulled away.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “You are 10 years older than I am.”
“Yeah, it's kind of a problem,” Adams replied. “But when you turn 18 we are going to have to talk.”
When she tried to change the subject, he asked to see her bra.
The girl’s mother called the Chesterfield Police Department five days later. She said her daughter was embarrassed and scared to report it.
Less than two years after Adams had accepted the plea deal in Illinois, he was again facing allegations of inappropriate conduct.
Adams, then 31, was charged in 2002 in St. Louis County with fondling the 14-year-old girl. But he was acquitted in 2003.
Details about the outcome are unavailable. In Missouri, court records are closed to the public after an acquittal, said Magee, executive assistant for the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office.
By 2003, no fewer than 12 young girls had accused Adams of groping them, yet he continued to coach gymnastics.
Early 2000's
CINCINNATI GYMNASTICS ACADEMY, FAIRFIELD, OHIO
Exactly where Adams went between 2002 and late 2005 is unclear. Records indicate Adams may have briefly moved to Michigan.
But sometime in that period, Adams landed at the Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy in Fairfield, Ohio. The elite gym has produced a series of Olympians and U.S. national team members, such as gold medalists Amanda Borden and Jaycie Phelps.
The gym owner, Mary Lee Tracy, said she didn’t do background checks of prospective employees at that time. She said she has since strengthened her policies, following USA Gymnastics’ lead.
Tracy did call one of Adams’ references, a former employer with no connection to gymnastics. That person told Tracy that Adams was a hard worker.
Tracy said she never had a problem with Adams. He left voluntarily, and she gave him a good reference.
She said she didn’t know about Adams’ criminal history until IndyStar told her.
“That makes me sick to my stomach,” she said.
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2005-2007
BUCKEYE GYMNASTICS, METRO COLUMBUS, OHIO
By late 2005, Adams was hired part time at Buckeye Gymnastics, another elite gym that produced gold medalist Gabby Douglas and other U.S. national team members.
David Holcomb, president of Buckeye Gymnastics, told IndyStar that Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy gave Adams a positive recommendation. But, through back channels, coaches said things like they “always got a bad vibe” and “keep your eye on him.”
Holcomb also said former employers listed on Adams’ resume said they let him go. When Holcomb asked why, they said Adams was “kind of acting like a creep” but wouldn’t provide specifics.
At the same time, Holcomb said he received glowing references from people who called Adams a “super spotter” who was terrific with kids and parents.
He noted that Adams also was a member in good standing with USA Gymnastics, the sport’s national governing body.
"I won't hire anybody who doesn't have credentials," Holcomb said.
It's not clear when Adams became a USA Gymnastics member. The organization declined to say when he joined or when it conducted a background check on him for any criminal convictions.
USA Gymnastics did say that Adams’ brushes with the law, including his misdemeanor battery conviction, did not show up on its background screen. It blamed the criminal justice system’s fragmented record keeping, as well as laws that prohibit agencies from providing information on nonconvictions older than seven years.
Holcomb said he separately paid for a background check on Adams, relying on the same company used by USA Gymnastics. It came back clean.
“I was getting very mixed messages, and good coaches are hard to come by,” Holcomb said.
He gave Adams a chance.
The first complaints Holcomb received weren’t about Adams’ conduct in the gym. Some parents complained that Adams was giving gymnasts gifts from his other job at Sharper Image, a retailer that sells home electronics, air purifiers and other gadgets.
Some of the gifts were expensive, but not all of the kids were getting them.
“He had his favorites,” Holcomb said.
Some parents whose children didn’t receive gifts complained to the gym.
Holcomb warned Adams to stop. He didn’t.
Then a parent complained that Adams had tickled his daughter, who didn’t like to be tickled. And Holcomb found out the coach had taken three photos of little girls doing the splits — something Holcomb said shouldn't be done.
Adams lasted 18 months. Holcomb said he fired Adams in March 2007 for failing to follow the gym’s policies.
“The pictures were bothering me,” Holcomb said, “the fact that he was taking inappropriate pictures of kids. I fired him on the spot. He was done.”
Holcomb followed up with a letter to parents.
“I understand that many of you have developed a friendly and close relationship with Ray,” he wrote. “Nonetheless, I am advising the gymnasts against any further contact.”
He told IndyStar that Adams threatened to call a lawyer when Holcomb confiscated Adams’ cellphone, which had the pictures on it.
Afterward, the Buckeye Gymnastics owner strengthened his own policies. He said he no longer allows anyone else to shoot photos of the gymnasts. He does it himself. And Holcomb said he educated himself about the warning signs of abuse.
Those behaviors — giving gifts, tickling and photographing gymnasts — mirrored other cases involving predatory coaches that were examined by IndyStar.
“Back in 2006, 2007, I was pretty oblivious,” Holcomb said. “I learned a hard lesson.”
He said he considered sending a complaint to USA Gymnastics, but the allegations against Adams weren’t violations of USA Gymnastics’ bylaws, nor did he think they were criminal violations.
What, Holcomb wondered, would he tell the national governing body? That Adams gave gifts, took some photos and tickled a kid?
“In hindsight, yep, I should’ve,” Holcomb said. “At the time, I’m going, ‘I’ve got nothing to hang my hat on here.’ It’s nothing. It’s basically my gut instinct that this guy is bad news.”
2007-2008
TREASURE COAST GYMNASTICS, PALM CITY, FLORIDA
Later that year, Adams moved to Florida and started coaching at Treasure Coast Gymnastics.
Initially, Sonya Fronsoe brushed off her preteen daughter’s concerns about Adams. Parents and most of the gymnasts adored him.
Not Fronsoe’s daughter.
“He’s not great,” the girl would tell her mother. “I’m telling you, something’s wrong.”
Fronsoe said she thought her daughter was complaining because Adams made her work hard.
Then she saw photos Adams shot of the girls for the team scrapbook. Fronsoe said she felt the photos were inappropriate.
She decided to do some research into Adams’ background. When she called his former employers, she said, they were cautious but encouraged her to continue digging.
“Every single person I called, it just got worse and worse,” Fronsoe said.
One former employer warned her Adams was “evil.”
“You need to get him out of your gym,” Fronsoe said she was told. “I’m warning you.”
When Fronsoe confronted Adams in 2008, she said, he denied the allegations and threatened to sue.
Stacey Honowitz, supervisor in the sex crimes unit of the Broward County state attorney’s office in Florida, said authorities later learned during an investigation of Adams that he was fired from the gym because of allegations of inappropriate conduct. No criminal charges were filed in connection with his departure.
Officials who worked at Treasure Coast Gymnastics at that time did not return calls from IndyStar seeking comment on the situation. The gym has since been sold and changed names.
By 2008, Adams had worked in at least 10 gyms and had been accused of inappropriate conduct involving at least 14 underage girls.
2008-2009
AMERICAN TWISTERS GYMNASTICS, COCONUT CREEK, FLORIDA
Adams continued his coaching career a little over an hour south of Palm City, at American Twisters Gymnastics in Coconut Creek.
In a deposition later taken during a criminal case against Adams, head coach Gary Anderson said he called Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy and Buckeye Gymnastics for job references in mid-2008. Anderson said employees at both gyms told him Adams didn’t get along with other people and left.
Holcomb, the owner of Buckeye, said he never spoke to Anderson and doesn’t believe someone from his gym would have told Anderson that.
Because Adams had threatened legal action, Holcomb said, he instructed his employees to send him any calls about references for Adams, so he could provide the details of Adams’ termination.
The one time he got a call about Adams, Holcomb said: “I just told her to run.”
In the deposition, Anderson said he asked Adams about his difficulty in getting along with other people. Adams claimed his previous employers “don’t go along with the techniques that I like.”
“Is the same thing going to happen when I call Treasure Coast?” Anderson asked Adams.
Adams claimed he’d had an affair at Treasure Coast that didn’t end well and resulted in lies being spread about him. It was an awkward situation, Anderson said in a deposition, so he didn’t follow up.
Anderson did not respond to IndyStar’s request for comment. But in a deposition, he said Adams’ hiring was “almost a too-good-to-be-true situation.” If someone needed an iPod, Adams brought one. If someone needed video, Adams volunteered to shoot it.
But three months into his tenure, employees reported concerns. Anderson said the new coach goofed around with the kids, spinning them around and tossing them into the foam pit. Adams also stroked kids’ hair and hugged a gymnast in an area of the gym where no one could see them. Today, USA Gymnastics lists those behaviors as warning signs of child abuse. But they aren’t grounds for revocation of membership.
Anderson said he warned Adams in late 2008 that there was a line drawn in the sand.
“On this side, you’re a coach and you’re a mentor and you’re a teacher,” Anderson said. “And on the other side, you’re a whatever, a friend, a playmate or whatever. And his job was to stay on the side of the line as a coach. And that there had been reports that he had breached that line.”
2009
A WARNING LETTER
On Dec. 30, 2008, a woman from Treasure Coast, the Florida gym that fired Adams, approached Anderson during a meet.
“Why do you have that guy working for you?” she asked, referring to Adams. “We had all kinds of problems with him.”
When Anderson explained why he hadn’t called, the woman told him Adams’ story about the affair was completely untrue.
Fronsoe, the Treasure Coast mother who had researched Adams’ background, said her daughter refused to compete when she saw Adams.
Infuriated that Adams was still coaching, Fronsoe said she wrote a scathing letter to USA Gymnastics on March 19, 2009, detailing her concerns about the coach. She said the fact that Adams was still coaching was “horrifying and creates fear in me for those other gymnasts as well as the possibility of my daughter being in the same gym with this man.”
She urged the organization to re-evaluate Adams’ membership.
“My (conscience) will not allow me to turn my back on a potential danger to other people’s daughters!” Fronsoe wrote. “I strongly feel that his presence in a gymnastics setting creates an unsafe environment for young girls, both physically and mentally.”
Fronsoe said she sent the letter to USA Gymnastics' national office in Indianapolis and the organization's Florida chairperson. Fronsoe said she followed up with a phone call to the national office to confirm USA Gymnastics received it. She said an official there confirmed receipt and said the letter was being reviewed.
In a written statement, USA Gymnastics said the person to whom the letter was addressed "has no knowledge or recollection of the letter, of USA Gymnastics receiving the letter, of any follow-up to the USA Gymnastics’ office by the mother, or that the USA Gymnastics office confirmed receipt of the letter. Further, USA Gymnastics has been unable to locate the letter.”
Later that year, Fronsoe provided a copy of the letter to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, which by then was investigating Adams. A detective turned it over to the Broward County Office of the State Attorney.
IndyStar obtained a copy of the letter through a public records request.
Despite the concerns about him, Adams continued coaching at American Twisters.
The story continues below.
2009
MORE CONCERNS AND QUESTIONS
In spring 2009, Anderson warned Adams about his behavior again. The head coach said he also brought the problems to the attention of owner Randall Sikora, who told him to keep an eye on Adams.
One employee told Anderson she had seen Adams rub gymnasts’ bellies, stroke their hair and spin them around. If Adams had done that to one of her children, the employee told Anderson, she would have immediately yanked her children from the program.
Anderson said he confronted Adams again in August 2009 about inappropriate conduct. He told Adams that he wanted other employees at the gym to keep an eye on Adams. He said he warned Adams that he would be dismissed if anything else happened.
“That’s the last I saw of Ray,” Anderson said.
Adams failed to show up for his next shift. When Anderson emailed to ask where he was, Adams turned in his notice.
He had been hired as a coach for Bieger International Gymnastics in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
2009
BIEGER INTERNATIONAL GYMNASTICS, DEERFIELD BEACH, FLORIDA
Not everyone was suspicious of Adams.
One gymnast would later say Adams had become her favorite coach at American Twisters. He was an affectionate man who tickled her back, played with her hair and rubbed her shin splints, according to court records. He told her how much he loved her.
The girl said Adams was the only coach who cared when she broke her foot. She came from an affectionate family, so his attention seemed normal.
They kept in touch through email and, when her injury healed, the girl, then 10 years old, joined Adams and her friends at Bieger.
“I was so young and innocent,” she said in court testimony. “I had no idea any of it was coming. I had no idea what molesting was. I was confused and didn’t understand. I thought maybe it was my fault, maybe it was what I was wearing.”
A month after Adams had been hired at Bieger, the girl said, he intentionally touched her nipple and pubic area, blew on her neck and massaged her back during a training session, according to police records. She also said Adams talked to her about kissing boys.
The 10-year-old’s mother reported the incident to police.
Another coach later told police that he saw Adams drape his arms over an underage girl, her back to his front. The coach also said he saw Adams laughing with a preteen girl as Adams poked her stomach, side and left breast.
Adams’ fingers also were very low on an underage gymnast’s stomach, below her panty line, while spotting her on bars, the coach said.
Adams continued to coach at Bieger International Gymnastics for a few more weeks, until his arrest in October 2009 on suspicion of molesting the 10-year-old girl. Adams, then 38, was charged with two felony counts of lewd or lascivious molestation, Broward County court records show.
USA Gymnastics suspended Adams’ membership, and then, after his conviction, placed him on the banned coaches list.
2013
FEDERAL CHARGES
The force of Adams’ personality became most apparent after that arrest.
Adams had worked for Bieger for less than two months. But more than a dozen parents and children attended his bond hearing, holding signs and publicly proclaiming his innocence, recalled Honowitz, the prosecutor handling the case.
“They came to court and basically taunted me,” Honowitz said. “‘How dare I? How could I? There’s no way.’ Because once again they didn't see the act of a master manipulator that ... was teaching their child. It was more important for them to have somebody that was going to make their child an Olympic gymnast than to look at the reality in this situation.”
Adams’ family and parents at the gym raised $80,000 to post his bond. The booster club subsequently sent a letter urging parents to donate toward Adams’ legal defense, according to court records.
“I hope everyone who receives this has heard enough to be convinced of his innocence,” the letter stated. “I could sit here all night and tell you what a great coach he is, what an extremely kind and good natured person he is, but I think we all know that.”
When people learned that she had accused Adams of molesting her, the 10-year-old Florida girl said, she lost all of her friends and the sport she loved.
“I couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t believe me,” she said. “I couldn’t understand why this happened to me, why I didn’t have any more friends.”
Adams was released on bond and placed on house arrest.
About 3½ years later, the molestation case still pending, Adams caught the attention of federal authorities when he clicked a link in a web forum message that read: “Pics and videos to download of my personal adventures during Mardi Gras 2012!!!! See me have sex with 3-10 years olds,” according to federal court records.
The FBI accused Adams of trying to access a file that described in graphic terms a 10-year-old being raped by a relative, federal court records state. Federal agents also discovered more than 100 images of child pornography, including multiple images of bondage, on Adams’ computer.
He was charged in federal court with five counts of possession of child pornography and one count each of attempted transfer of obscene material to a minor and attempted receipt of child pornography.
2013-present
GUILTY PLEAS AND PRISON TIME
Adams pleaded guilty on May 13, 2013, to one count of attempted receipt of child pornography, federal court records show.
Adams’ attorney submitted 19 letters of support for Adams.
One former gymnast who was coached by Adams from 2002 to 2004 at Cincinnati Gymnastics Academy described him as her favorite coach, a happy person who strengthened her skills as a gymnast.
“He is a great man, a man full of courage, love, strength and dedication,” the woman wrote. “I believe that he could not even think to do anything troublesome and/ or harmful.”
On the other side were two girls, molested 16 years apart, linked by fear of the same man.
Brannan, the Missouri girl whose mother wouldn’t allow her to testify against Adams in 1993 after she said Adams sat her on his lap and put his finger in her vagina, agreed to testify during Adams’ sentencing on the child porn charge.
Brannan had grown up, gotten married and had a daughter of her own. But the scars from her time with Adams remained.
“It forever changes you,” she said. “I think anytime anyone is abused in any way it changes you, because it’s something you didn’t choose. It just happened to you, and you have to deal with it. You know, it’s made me a strong person. I’ll say that.”
Strong enough, Brannan said, to confront her fears and face Adams in court on July 25, 2013. She described the fear that she still lived with to that day.
“I’m scared,” she testified. “I have a daughter now that’s almost the age I was, and I’m so scared. I’ve been scared he’s going to come after me. I’ve been scared he’s going to find me and rape me. Now I think about my daughter, and I think he’s still there. What if he wants to find her?”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandy Galler told the judge: “This is abuse that doesn’t go away. It has stolen the innocence of little girls. He was in a position of trust, and he violated that.”
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks then sentenced Adams to 20 years in federal prison.
Less than 18 months later, Adams pleaded no contest to two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of the 10-year-old girl at Bieger International Gymnastics. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, to run concurrently with his federal sentence.
Through a federal prison spokesperson, Adams declined IndyStar’s requests for an interview and said “they do not have permission to use my name, and, if they do, I will aggressively sue them.”
Andrea Bieger, who owned the Florida gym where the 10-year-old said she was molested, told IndyStar she still believes Adams did not molest a girl at her gym, which has closed. Her insurance company settled a lawsuit brought by the girl’s family, claiming the gym had been negligent.
“It wasn’t true,” Bieger said. “It was never, ever true.”
Honowitz, of the Broward County state attorney’s office in Florida, said Adams was a master manipulator and one of the worst predators she has encountered.
“He’s one of the worst that I’ve seen,” Honowitz said, referencing her nearly 29 years as a prosecutor. “Because he’s the silent type, and he does it under the guise of being a trainer.”
The Florida girl testified in court during the federal case that she cried every night for four years. She slept in a room with her mother.
In the girl’s mind, Ray Adams was everywhere.
“I didn’t feel safe anywhere,” the girl, now 17, said in court. “Not at home, not at school, certainly not in public, and not even in my own church.”
She struggled with depression and anxiety.
“My goal is that I’m the last girl he will ever touch,” the girl said, “and that ends with me.”
Call IndyStar reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyMarisaK.
Call IndyStar reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.
Call IndyStar reporter Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311. Follow him on Twitter: @markalesia.
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IndyStar will continue to investigate this topic. If you have information you would like to share, please email investigations@indystar.com or call (317) 444-6262.
