Ex-MSU Doctor in Olympic Sexual Abuse Scandal Charged

Dr. Larry Nassar, who was fired by Michigan State University while under the cloud of a far-reaching investigation into sexual allegations by a member of the 2000 U.S. women’s Olympics gymnastics team and another gymnast, has been charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a child under the age of 13, according to online court records.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said in a statement Monday that he and Michigan State University Police Chief James Dunlap will discuss the allegations against the former USA Gymnastics team physician at a news conference at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Lansing.

A search of Ingham County court records showed three criminal first-degree criminal sexual assault charges involving a person under 13 for incidents that allegedly occurred in 1998. Nassar is in custody, but it is unclear if he has been arraigned.

The Detroit Free Press reported the alleged abuse took place at Nassar’s home in Holt, Michigan, between 1998 and 2005, but Schuette spokeswoman Megan Hawthorne declined to say if the charges are connected to more than one victim. The charges are punishable by up to life in prison.

In the weeks since the allegations against Nassar were revealed in a sweeping Indianapolis Star investigation, 16 more women stepped forward with allegations that Nassar had sexually assaulted them, according to Michigan State University Police.

News of the investigation into allegations against Nassar and others broke on the eve of the 2016 Rio Olympics. According to that report, USA Gymnastics officials brushed off at least 14 reports of sexual abuse by team officials, some involving gymnasts as young as 7.

Among those who filed criminal complaints with the MSU Police was Rachael Denhollander, who was interviewed in the Indy Star report and allowed her name to be used. The newspaper also interviewed a former Olympic gymnast who filed a lawsuit in California.

Both alleged that Nassar fondled their breasts and genitals during multiple treatments in the 1990s and early 2000s. They said Nassar talked about oral sex and made other lewd comments while they were alone together.

Denhollander alleged that Nassar began sexually assaulting her when she visited him for treatment of lower back pain at age 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.

“I was terrified,” she told the Indy Star. “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?”

She blamed herself, which she said she now knows “is a very common response that victims have.”

“It’s much easier in some ways to hide from what’s happening and just go somewhere else mentally. It was easier to not have to verbalize and recognize what was happening.”

In the California lawsuit, the former gymnast alleged that Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics disregarded suspicions about Nassar’s conduct, but the Indy Star said her attorney, John Manly, declined to give specific details to back up the allegations because “frankly, it would give the defense an unfair advantage.”

Nassar’s attorney, Matthew Borgula, told the Indy Star that his client “adamantly denies any misconduct at this or any other time.”

Nassar, who had served as the team physician for the USA gymnastics team physician in four Olympic games, abruptly resigned from the team in 2015. Michigan State University fired Nassar in September. He had been relieved of his clinical responsibilities in August after the Indy Star report broke.

The university has previously said that Nassar wasn’t fired because he was under investigation but because conditions put in place when he was cleared in a 2014 sexual abuse investigation “were not consistently met.”
Also, MSU spokesman Jason Cody said, “the university learned Nassar was not forthcoming when questioned about other previous allegations during the initial 2014 investigation.”

Photo via Michigan State University