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Former Linn-Mar assistant track and field coach pleads guilty to sexual abuse of two teenage students

Kameron Beets reads from a Bible before a hearing Thursday at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids.  Beets entered an Alford plea in a plea deal over allegations related to the sexual abuse of a 17-year-old male student and a 15-year-old male student in 2021.  (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)K

Kameron Beets reads from a Bible before a hearing Thursday at the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids. Beets entered an Alford plea in a plea deal over allegations related to the sexual abuse of a 17-year-old male student and a 15-year-old male student in 2021. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — A former assistant track and field coach at Linn-Mar High School pleaded Thursday to a lesser charge of sexually abusing two teenage students in 2021 during what he called a “training program.”

Kameron Martelle Beets, 32, of Cedar Rapids, pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual abuse, a felony, and sexual exploitation by a school employee, a felony, in a case involving a 17-year-old student. A second-degree kidnapping charge will be dismissed at sentencing as part of the plea agreement.

Beets also pleaded guilty in another case involving a 15-year-old student who committed assault with intent to commit sexual assault without causing injury, a serious misdemeanor. The other accusation of lascivious behavior towards a minor was dismissed when the verdict was announced.

Beets urged Alford to press charges. When a defendant enters an Alford plea, he or she is not admitting guilt, but is admitting that the prosecution has enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Those 2021 cases have been rescheduled at least eight times in the last three years as Beets changed attorneys more than once.

He faces up to 14 years in prison and a special sentence of life suspended because it is a sexual offense. He must also meet sex offender registration requirements.

Linn Assistant District Attorney Jordan Schier said after the plea deal that he entered into an agreement to receive a sexual abuse conviction and lifelong special probation and registration.

“It also keeps him away from the community and sentences him to prison,” Schier told The Gazette. “Jury trials always involve a lot of risk, and I was not willing to risk a case like this in front of a jury and allow the jury to not convict him and let him remain in the community.”

Schier said the agreement also allows the young male victims not to testify.

“These were the most serious charges he would have been convicted of, and there is no agreement to prosecute them concurrently,” Schier noted. “The state will require that they run consecutively and that Mr. Beets each receive the maximum sentence.”

Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Patrick Grady has scheduled the sentencing hearing for July 16 in Linn County District Court.

The plea hearing was delayed for nearly two hours because a court reporter was not available for it. The district has lost 12 court reporters as one retired last month, but District Court Administrator Kellee Cortez said a court reporter will start in June and another voice actor – reporter – will start about the next month.

In recent years, there has been a shortage of court reporters in Iowa and across the country to provide a formal transcript of proceedings.

Criminal charges

In 2021, after Beets was arrested, Linn-Mar High School officials said in the statement they were aware of the allegations, but said Beets resigned as a student representative on April 14, 2021 and his contract as an assistant boys varsity coach was terminated. Trainer expired on May 22, 2021. He continued to work as an unpaid trainer on a voluntary basis.

School officials also said they believe the school administration has not received any complaints indicating “misconduct in a school-related context.”

According to a complaint, the 17-year-old told police that Beets, who served as his trainer, instructed the teen to send him nude photos or videos. Beets met with the teen in an office at Linn-Mar High on September 27, 2021, “to conduct a ‘physical analysis’ for Beets’ personal ‘training program.’

During that meeting, Beets asked the teen to take off his clothes and molested and abused him, locking him in a bathroom for more than 45 minutes while the teen was naked, a criminal complaint says. Beets took the teenager’s clothes and wouldn’t give them back.

In the other case, a 15-year-old told police that Beets – his coach – asked him to send nude photos or videos and to meet him in person “to evaluate and coach him,” according to a criminal complaint .

Police also collected digital forensic evidence in the case, the complaint said.

The teen told police that Beets met him at Linn-Mar High on September 25, 2021, to perform a “physical analysis” for a “training program,” during which Beets told the teen to strip naked before caressed his buttocks and the inside of his thigh.

Beets also had access to student-athletes through his sports photography business and his personal training program called BEAST Academy. Beets’ LinkedIn profile in 2021 stated that he founded BEAST Academy in May 2020. The company’s social media accounts feature dozens of photos and videos taken at prep football games, baseball games, wrestling matches and other events, mostly in eastern Iowa.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com