Journalists Ended Larry Nassar’s Serial Sex Abuse: Prosecutor

LANSING, MI — If not for investigative journalists, serial molester Larry Nassar might have continued to sexually abuse young gymnasts and other athletes, a prosecutor said Wednesday in the disgraced doctor’s extraordinary, seven-day hearing in a Michigan courtroom. One survivor after another has confronted Nassar about what he had done to her and how it affected her life.

Prosecutor Angela Povilaitis, who called Nassar “possibly the most prolific serial child sex abuser in history,” praised journalists about half a dozen times during the former USA Gymnatics and Michigan State University doctor's sentencing hearing Wednesday.

Nassar, who is already serving a 60-year sentence on federal pornography charges, was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison— essentially a “death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said as she handed down the sentence. Nassar pleaded guilty to multiple criminal sexual conduct charges in November.

Foremost among the journalists who exposed Nassar were reporters with the Indianapolis Star, whose reporting project said USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, routinely looked the other way when team officials molested gymnasts. The first installment of the project was published on the eve of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Rachael Denhollander, the first gymnast to publicly accuse Nassar, said the report gave her the courage to speak out, starting a domino effect that eventually brought more than 150 girls and women into Aquilina’s courtroom in Michigan, where they bravely confronted their abuser. Denhollander filed a police report in 2016 with Michigan State, where Nassar was a sports doctor until he was fired in the wake of the IndyStar investigation.

Denhollander told the IndyStar that Nassar began molesting her when she visited him for treatment of lower back pain at 15 and that he became more abusive over five treatments, penetrating her anus and vagina with his fingers and thumb, and unhooking her bra and massaging her breasts. Denhollander was the last of Nassar's victims to testify

“I was terrified,” Denhollander told the newspaper. “I was ashamed. I was very embarrassed. And I was very confused, trying to reconcile what was happening with the person he was supposed to be. He’s this famous doctor. He’s trusted by my friends. He’s trusted by these other gymnasts. How could he reach this position in the medical profession, how could he reach this kind of prominence and stature if this is who he is.”

Media coverage also has brought a critical eye on USA Gymnastics, whose top executives resigned in the wake of the scandal. Michigan State, too, came under media scrutiny in a report by The Detroit News that said complaints to university about Nassar date back at least two decades prior to his arrest. The newspaper’s report said at least 14 officials, including MSU President Lou Anna Simon, had been warned of Nassar’s conduct.

Aquilina, whose gentle words to the survivors after their testimony have brought worldwide attention, said at the conclusion of the hearing that she would not be making statements to the media. She praised journalists for their coverage of the Nassar scandal, “an important story for the survivors,” she said.

“This story is not about me,” she said. “It never was about me. … It’s just not my story. It is their story.”

» Read more about the Nassar sentencing here.

Photo of Larry Nassar by David Eggert/AP: File