Former Colorado coach imprisoned for sexually assaulting teen athletes: "Every parent's worst nightmare"

A former Colorado man was recently sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting several members of the elite, Olympic-caliber swim team he coached 27 years ago in Boulder.

A Boulder County jury recently convicted Jon Beber on three felony counts of sexually assaulting children. Last month, a judge ordered Beber to serve a total of 42 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. He will not, however, be eligible for parole (and release from prison) until he completes sex offender treatment, regardless of how long that may take.

Beber, now 53, could remain behind bars for the rest of his life.   

The team was called the Boulder Poseidon in 1997 when Beber was hired (and changed its name to Boulder Swimming at roughly the same time). It was a coed team at the time, but many male swimmers left soon after Beber took the reigns, according to the case document. That left the team's roster mostly filled by female swimmers of middle school and high school age.

Beber was in his late 30s when he accepted the position. 

In early 2002, three girls on the swim team realized they had common experiences with their coach involving inappropriate touching and suggestive language. According to a case document, the three confided in one girl's parent.

Soon after, Beber resigned from his post and moved out of state.

However, no reports were filed with law enforcement agencies and no complaints were made to state and national swimming organizations, according to a case document.  

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Then, in the summer of 2021, nearly 20 years after Beber left Boulder, one of the victims contacted Boulder authorities to revisit the case. She told investigators she was becoming a swim coach herself. She was required to take training courses, one of which covered the prevention of potential sexual abuse of athletes. The topic triggered her recollections.  

"It was (that victim's) understanding that USA Swimming investigated the allegations for about two weeks and then turned the decision back over to the parent board," Beber's arrest affidavit reads. "The parents had been too afraid of things happening to their daughters if the news got out, and did not pursue further reporting." 

Eventually, investigators recounted the experiences of the three victims. One told investigators that Beber regularly gave her explicit massages and touched her inappropriately during stretching exercises. She also said Beber once subjected her to a sexual encounter in his hotel room during a trip to an Olympic trials meet in Indianapolis. Another admitted to having a consensual sexual relations with Beber at his condo for several months, always leaving before Beber's girlfriend returned home from work. The third said Beber coarsely told her he wanted to have sex with her and later raped her in a locker room. 

Meanwhile, all three of the victims described feeling "special" in the early stages of Beber's actions. They felt favored over the other swimmers when they were singled out. Some of the victims even became jealous of the others when Beber's attention went elsewhere.

Those feelings changed as Beber's abuse escalated.

Beber did not allow parents to attend the nearly dozen practices conducted each week, according to the affidavit.  

After their reports surfaced, the victims were afraid of other swimmers' disapproval. One of the victims switched teams after interpreting other team members' unhappiness "since they had lost their Olympic-level coach," the affidavit reads.

"Beber was successful with getting swimmers to the Olympic trials in the span of two years, so nobody wanted to question his tactics," an investigator summarized in the affidavit. 

Boulder Police Department detectives investigated the case for more than a year. Beber was then arrested in Georgia. 

Two months later, in September 2022, USA Swimming moved to permanently ban Beber from coaching any athletes in its system. 

One other Colorado swim coach, Matt Beck, is also on USA Swimming's list of banned coaches. He was suspended in 2012 for sexual misconduct. According to media reports, Beck had been a longtime coach of Highlands Ranch Aquatics. 

A spokesperson for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office confirmed detectives there investigated the allegations against Beck but found no evidence of a crime. Beck was and has never been criminally charged. 

Colorado Swimming and USA Swimming did not respond to inquiries from CBS News Colorado about Beber's sentencing. 

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Six witnesses corroborated the three victims' stories in the arrest affidavit, including a woman who was a swimmer for Beber in New York prior to his hiring in Boulder. She was 17-18 years old at the time. She testified about Beber's conduct toward her and other swimmers in New York during his trial in Boulder, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty confirmed. 

"This lengthy prison sentence is the right outcome," Dougherty stated in a press release announcing Beber's sentence. "As the judge noted, this type of case is every parent's worst nightmare. Parents drop kids off for practice or school and hope that the adults in charge are not abusing their position of trust. This defendant did exactly that, for years. It is only because of the victims' courage and perseverance that we were able to bring charges all these years later and secure justice for them and their families."  

Dougherty predicted Beber would serve at least 30 years in prison.

The Colorado state legislature passed a law in 2016 extending the statute of limitations - the length of time allowed to pursue criminal charges of earlier sexual assault - to 20 years. However, there is no statute of limitations for sex assault on a child in Colorado.