A gymnastics coach from Massachusetts who allegedly videotaped a child in the bathroom of a Waterbury gymnastics center pleaded not guilty Thursday in Washington County Superior criminal court to a charge of voyeurism.
Jonathan Girard, 39, of North Adams was charged with the offense on Aug. 1.
In an affidavit, Vermont State Police Detective Trooper Mathew Nadeau alleged that Girard “intentionally, filmed or recorded” the intimate areas of a minor female without the person’s knowledge and consent in a single stall bathroom at the Central Vermont Gymnastic Academy, where he was a visiting coach.
The minor was changing, and the footage captured her “undergarment-clad breasts,” the affidavit stated.
After a brief arraignment, Superior Court Judge Kevin Griffin released Girard on several conditions including that he not have any contact with children under the age of 18 or staff at the Waterbury academy.
The judge granted Girard permission to contact minor family members in the presence of adults.
According to the police affidavit, Girard was at the Waterbury gymnastics center coaching the competitive team in the summer program that runs June 19 to Aug. 25. There were about 30 children on the team, aged 6-7 and 16-17.
On July 15, the academy’s owner, Anissa Davis, told police that Girard had just informed her that he’d found an SD card on his computer with video of children changing in the academy’s bathroom, according to the affidavit.
In a subsequent interview with state police, the affidavit states, Girard’s fiancee, Victoria Bonin, said she had accidentally opened the videos on Girard’s laptop that day. When she confronted him about it, Bonin told police that Girard denied knowledge of the videos and then deleted them without viewing them, throwing the SD card into the trash, according to the affidavit.
Bonin said she tried to contact Davis and then reached out to Davis’s son to notify them of the videos, the court document states. She later spoke to Davis on the phone, who asked her to retrieve the SD card.
Girard, who is the owner of J Star Gymnastics in North Adams, later told Bonin he had left the laptop unattended several times at his gym, according to the affidavit. The laptop was password-protected and only Girard and Bonin knew the password, Bonin told police.
An officer from the North Adams Police Department seized the laptop and the SD card. Vermont State Police took custody of the items on July 20 and a judge issued a warrant to search them on July 25, the affidavit states.
A state trooper searched the bathrooms at the Waterbury location but did not find any recording devices there.
Special agents from Homeland Security Investigations analyzed the seized items. The affidavit notes that they were not able to recover the original videos but found four cached thumbnail images of videos on Girard’s laptop showing minor females in the Waterbury facility’s bathroom. Davis identified one of the girls, a 13 year old, according to the affidavit.
If found guilty of the misdemeanor charge, Girard faces a maximum prison term of two years and/or a maximum fine of $1,000, according to the charge filed by Washington County State’s Attorney Michelle Donnelly.
On Wednesday, the J Star Gymnastics’ website listed Girard as the owner and head coach. By Thursday morning the website was down and the phone number was disconnected.
Neither Davis nor her attorney, Christina Nolan, responded to requests for comment Thursday.
