Opinion by Abigail Pesta, Photographs by Jesse Pesta
Updated 12:16 PM ET, Sat March 6, 2021 (CNN)The stretch of Grand Avenue where Onesimo Garcia works in Brooklyn is not exactly grand. It s a desolate warehouse street, in the shadow of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, where cars roar overhead. There s a monolithic self-storage place on one end of the block and a trio of empty warehouses on the other, waiting to be demolished. It s a street where film crews like to stage scenes of drug deals going down. It has that look all grit and graffiti. But there s also a tiny garden, growing in a square of dirt carved out of the sidewalk, where sunflowers and roses bloom in the summer.
REVEALED: US Olympic gymnastics coach John Geddert killed himself after he was accused of trafficking 22 children, pushing a girl to attempt suicide by saying she was too fat and telling another to kill herself
New testimony filed in Eaton County court on Thursday revealed two of his victims attempted suicide after repeated abuse
One victim, who attended Twistars USA gym was repeatedly fat-shamed and forced into daily weigh-ins despite weighing just 118 pounds
Geddert s abuse caused her to quit eating, develop panic attacks and start picking at her skin
She attempted suicide in 2012, and Geddert forced her to apologize to him after
John Geddert, 63, took his own life hours after he was charged with 24 crimes
Geddert was head coach of 2012 US woman s Olympics gymnastics team
He had ties to Larry Nassar, team doctor convicted of assaulting scores of girls
Nassar treated gymnasts at Geddert s gym as well as Michigan State University
Geddert was charged with sexual assault and human trafficking
He is also accused of injuring people for years through forced labor
He allegedly lied to authorities when he said no one complained about Nassar
Nassar is serving decades in prison for sexually assaulting scores of gymnasts
In July 2019, gymnast Sara Teristi said Geddert forced her to see Nasser