Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Adam Richard Jacobs, a Utah gymnastics coach, pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting minors in two courts this week.
- He admitted to filming at least 15 children without consent in a bathroom at USA Gymnastics World, and one child while traveling.
- Jacobs faces separate state and federal sentences.
FARMINGTON — A Utah gymnastics coach pleaded guilty this week in both state and federal court to sexually exploiting at least 15 minor children and taking videos of them without their knowledge.
Adam Richard Jacobs, 34, is a partial owner of USA Gymnastics World in Woods Cross, where he admitted to placing a camera that looked like a USB charger in a public restroom between January 2022 and March 2023. In a plea statement filed Thursday he admitted that he intended to capture images of children in various stages of undress, intentionally pointing the camera at the toilet.
"I wanted to capture these images and videos for my own sexual gratification," his plea statement filed Thursday said.
Jacobs admitted to capturing videos of at least 15 minors and two adults, who all had an expectation of privacy, through the camera in that bathroom.
On Thursday, Jacobs pleaded guilty in 2nd District Court to 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and two counts of voyeurism, a class A misdemeanor. As part of a plea deal, an additional 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and 3 counts of voyeurism were dismissed.
On Wednesday, he admitted in federal court to placing a hidden camera in a minor's hotel room and bathroom to produce child sexual abuse materials while traveling with the minor as a coach from Utah to Texas and Florida.
Jacobs' plea statement says he pleaded guilty to transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. As part of a plea deal, a charge for production of child pornography and a charge for possession of child pornography were both dismissed.
Attorneys have agreed to suggest a sentence of 10 years in prison with lifetime supervision for the federal charge, according to court documents.
Jacobs also admitted that other electronic devices seized during a March 2023 search warrant were used to produce child sexual abuse materials, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office of Utah.
An employee of USA Gymnastics World discovered a hidden camera in a unisex restroom twice and contacted police. The investigation found 120 video files of victims in that restroom. The camera also showed Jacobs setting up the camera 40 times both at his home and at the gym, court documents say.
He was initially charged in state court in March 2023 with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and 10 counts of voyeurism, a class A misdemeanor, but that case was dismissed after the federal charges were filed. Later, a second state case was filed.
Jacobs is scheduled to be sentenced in the federal case on Aug. 14.
In both plea statements signed by Jacobs he agrees that the federal sentence will not impact the 2nd District sentence and the two cases will be addressed separately. Attorneys in the state case did not agree to propose any specific sentence.
