SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — Warning: The following story includes descriptions of alleged rape, sexual assault and molestation.
Three children have accused Mark Hoffmeister of rape and molestation when they were children from 1995 to 1998, according to an affidavit filed in Spokane County Superior Court on Nov. 22.
The allegations are from three different people, two girls and one boy, who were all children at the time of the alleged incidents.
Hoffmeister is being investigated for a count of first-degree rape of a child, a count second-degree rape and a count of first-degree child molestation in relation to one of the victims, according to the affidavit. Police are also investigating him for a separate count of first-degree child molestation for his actions toward another victim included in the affidavit.
Charges cannot be pursued in relation to the other child due to Washington’s statute of limitations, according to the documents.
One of the alleged victims was a child gymnast at Northwest Gymnastics Academy as a teenager in the late 1990s. An ex-wife of Hoffmeister’s told police that he was still allowed to be present at the academy following allegations from the gymnast, according to the affidavit.
Six people told investigators that Mike and Nancy Armstrong, who owned Northwest Gymnastics Academy at the time, knew of the allegations made by the child gymnast, according to the affidavit. Both Armstrongs told police they weren’t aware of the allegations by the gymnast against Hoffmeister until police contacted them for the investigation, according to the documents.
KREM has reached out to Northwest Gymnastics Academy for comment.
Hoffmeister, 64, was arraigned in Spokane County Superior Court on Tuesday morning for a total of one count of second-degree rape, three counts of first-degree child rape and two counts of first-degree child molestation. He pleaded not guilty and is not listed as a current Spokane County inmate.
Editor’s Note: KREM is not disclosing the names of the victims in the following reporting on the allegations in an effort to protect them from further harm.
Victim 1 - Northwest Gymnastics Academy member
The first alleged victim listed in the affidavit was a gymnast at Northwest Gymnastics Academy from when she was a young child until she was 16 years old.
She told investigators, according to the affidavit, that Hoffmeister was highly regarded in the local gymnastics community. The alleged victim said she frequently spent time with Hoffmeister’s children, including at his home on North Garfield Street.
This alleged victim said she was 15 in the summer of 1996 and was having a sleepover at the Hoffmeister’s house. According to the affidavit, she told investigators she was laying on a trampoline in the backyard in between Hoffmeister and another girl as Hoffmeister was telling a scary story to them in the dark, which the alleged victim said was a common occurrence.
Another gymnast and family friend who didn’t make any allegations against Hoffmeister told police these types of sleepovers on the trampoline were common.
The alleged victim told a detective that after Hoffmeister finished the scary story, she felt him place his hand “into her pants beneath her underwear.” She told investigators that Hoffmeister didn’t penetrate her.
According to the affidavit, the alleged victim said she first froze because she didn’t know that to do before rolling over in an attempt to “let him know” she was awake. After this, the victim alleged Hoffmeister moved his hand from her underwear and moved them up her shirt to grab her breasts, according to the documents.
After this, the victim told detectives she rolled over again, after which Hoffmeister allegedly left and went inside his house for the night, according to the affidavit.
The alleged victim said she told another gymnast at the academy and the Armstrongs about the sexual assault a week later during a practice, according to the documents. This led to Hoffmeister calling the victim’s mother that night, according to the affidavit.
The mother told a detective that she confronted Hoffmeister after receiving the call and talking to her daughter about the alleged sexual assault, according to the affidavit. The mother said she told him to not be inappropriate with the gymnasts.
The mother said she thought he was being inappropriate but didn’t think anything criminal had happened, according to the affidavit.
She also said she told Mike Armstrong of the allegation, to which he allegedly told her he would take care of it, according to the affidavit.
Multiple people told police that the Armstrongs had a meeting with the other gymnasts about the allegations, which led to the victim allegedly becoming an “outsider” and quitting gymnastics just after her 16th birthday.
An ex-wife of Hoffmeister’s also told detectives she was contacted by Mike Armstrong about the allegations from the victim, and that Hoffmeister frequently wanted the victim to visit and would often try to get them to listen to scary stories on the trampoline, according to the affidavit.
She also said she overheard Hoffmeister speak to someone on the phone, believed to be the victim, telling the person that he was “just trying to rub her back” and that nothing inappropriate had happened.
The alleged victim told a detective she started using drugs to cope with the assault and became a runaway, according to the documents. She also wrote about the assault in a diary that her mother confirmed she found.
The alleged victim reported the assault to Crime Check in 2011. She also told investigators she never asked Hoffmeister for money or to pay for her membership, which he claimed happened when interviewed by police.
Police noted in the affidavit that Hoffmeister tried to deflect questions about all three victim’s allegations during interviews. With this victim, he told police the last time he had contact with her was shortly before she left the gym.
He also said the Armstrongs never confronted him about the allegations from this victim.
Multiple people who were gymnasts at the time of the alleged assault said they remember being spoken to or hearing about the allegations, according to the documents.
Hoffmeister denied all allegations.
A female relative of Hoffmeister’s told police he was trying to get other relatives to sign a document saying he didn’t touch any of them or any friends inappropriately.
Victim 2 - Female relative
The other alleged female victim was a relative of Hoffmeister’s and told investigators of allegations similar to those of the first victim and of an alleged sexual assault during a vacation.
The victim told investigators Hoffmeister sexually assaulted her multiple times between the ages of 5 and 8 years old.
She told police, according to the affidavit, that Hoffmeister sexually assaulted her multiple times during sleepovers on his trampoline while telling a scary story, much like the other female victim. She told police Hoffmeister allegedly penetrated her with his fingers and forced her to touch his genitals and would place his genitals on her face.
The victim told police she went with Hoffmeister’s family during a vacation to the Ainsworth Hot Springs in British Columbia when she was 6 years old. She alleges that Hoffmeister took her into a swimmable cave alone on the trip and touched and penetrated her in the cave, according to the affidavit.
The victim also alleged that Hoffmeister put his hand in her underwear and forced her to perform oral sex on multiple other occasions as a child, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the victim told her mother about the assaults, to which her mother told her to tell Hoffmeister to stop. The victim said Hoffmeister agreed to stop when confronted.
The mother confirmed to police that the victim told her of inappropriate touching by Hoffmeister.
When asked by police about this alleged victim’s allegations, Hoffmeister said the victim started seeing a counselor in the past few years and “she started remembering stuff,” according to the affidavit.
Hoffmeister confirmed to police that his family used to go to Ainsworth Hot Springs for trips, but said he didn’t remember the victim being with them, according to the documents. However, police were given a photo of the victim with the Hoffmeister family at the hot springs, according to the affidavit.
Hoffmeister denied all claims of sexual contact with the victim.
Victim 3 – Male relative
The third alleged victim included in the affidavit is a man related to Hoffmeister who told police the alleged molestation happened when he was a child.
According to the affidavit, the male victim told police that Hoffmeister took him into bedroom at his North Garfield Street home when the boy was 8 years old. The victim alleged that Hoffmeister told him, “I’m going to show you something fun, something really fun. This is what guys do,” according to the documents.
Hoffmeister then allegedly had both of them kneel on the ground and touched the alleged victim’s genitals hard enough to where it almost hurt, the victim said in the affidavit. The victim said Hoffmeister got angry when he began to cry.
The alleged male victim also told investigators about another incident involving victim 2, in which they watched a movie while laying on Hoffmeister’s bed, according to the affidavit. Victim 3 told police that Hoffmeister made victim 2 lay at the head of the bed with him while he and others laid at the base of the bed.
The alleged male victim said he was told not to turn around by Hoffmeister, according to the affidavit.
Another relative present for this alleged incident said the same thing as the alleged male victim, and added she heard what she thought was victim 2’s underwear band snap, according to the documents.
Hoffmeister denied the allegations from the male victim, and said there was rarely a television in his bedroom to watch a movie on.
Upon being told of the allegations involving the movie and victim 2, Hoffmeister told a detective, “Well, any underwear can snap if you reached into it.”
He denied all allegations from the victim.
