First Male Gymnast Accuses Nassar Of Sexual Abuse In Lurid Detail

A former member of the U.S. men's junior national gymnastics team has accused Larry Nassar, the disgraced sports doctor for Olympic-bound athletes who used his position to become a serial sexual abuser, of molesting him when he was 16 years old. Jacob Moore, now 18, is the first male to join in a civil lawsuit related to Nassar, now in prison for child pornography and sexually abusing scores of girls and women.

Moore's allegations were added to a lawsuit already joined by dozens of Nassar's victims and amended Wednesday, the same day six-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman filed a separate action against the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics for allowing the abuse to continue for years.

Moore says he was molested and humliated when he went to Nassar's home in April 2016 to be treated for shoulder pain. While Nassar was treating Moore in his basement, the lawsuit says, a young female gymnast walked in.

“When the minor female gymnast came into the basement,” the court filing stated, “Dr. Nassar then pulled down Plaintiff Jacob Moore’s pants, exposing his genitalia, explaining to Jacob Moore that he was doing this to treat his shoulder pain through acupuncture in his pubic area and in and around his genitalia.

“Additionally, Defendant Nassar discussed the fact that he was exposing Plaintiff Jacob Moore to the minor gymnast … There is no known medical connection between shoulder pain which can be treated through acupuncture in the area of a male’s genitalia."

Rachael Denhollander, the first gymnast to publicly accuse Nassar, filed the original suit, which names as defendants Nassar, USA Gymnastics, Michigan State University, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, multiple individuals at MSU, the Twistars USA gymnastics club, its former owner and the 2012 U.S. Olympic head coach John Geddert, who has been accused of ignoring reports of Nassar's abuse since 1998.

Denhollander’s allegations against Nassar, first reported in a bombshell Indianapolis Star report in 2016, opened a floodgate in a scandal that has reached the upper echelons of Olympic sports governance.

Nassar, 54, will spend the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of the child pornography charges and decades of sexual abuse.

Jacob Moore’s sister, Kamerin Moore, was also abused. She was among more than 150 girls and women who gave impact statements at Nassar’s January sentencing hearing, where she said that her brother had been abused by the former doctor.

“When he realized what a monster you are, I watched him frantically search the internet trying to find some proof that the chi in his shoulder is somehow connected to his genitals," she said at the time. “My whole family was fooled by you, but I know now who you really are—a child molester and a master manipulator.”

Jacob Moore, who now competes for the University of Michigan's gymnastic team, “believes the conduct of Dr. Nassar was sexual assault, battery, abuse, molestation and harassment performed by Defendant Nassar for Defendant Nassar’s sexual pleasure and gratification,” the court filing says,

The lawsuit filed by Aly Raisman, who spent months prodding the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastic to take a hard look into how Nassar’s abuse went unchecked for so long, names both organizations as defendants, saying they “knew or should have known” about a pattern of abuse by Nassar. He is a co-defendant in the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in California.

Raisman, 23, the co-captain for both the 2012 and 2016 gold-medal winning Olympic teams, said she was abused by Nassar in multiple locations beginning in 2010, including at the U.S. national team training facility at the Karolyi Ranch training center in Texas and at the 2012 Games in London. Like others who have accused him, she said she initially felt she was receiving medically necessary treatment by Nassar before realizing it was abuse. Raisman battled shame, guilt and depression in the aftermath, she said.

Raisman said the USOC and USA Gymnastics allowed Nassar to continue abusing athletes by not telling the university about the conduct that led them to fire him. USA Gymnastics and the USOC broke their stated mandates to protect children in their programs by not revealing Nassar's past misconduct to athletes and their parents or guardians, the lawsuit said.

"I refuse to wait any longer for these organizations to do the right thing," Raisman said in a statement. "It is my hope that the legal process will hold them accountable and enable the change that is so desperately needed."

The USOC is conducting an independent review of when former CEO Scott Blackmun and others learned the details about abuse cases at USA Gymnastics and whether they responded appropriately.

Blackmun stepped down earlier this week to deal with prostate cancer, though Raisman, several high-profile gymnasts and two U.S. Senators had been calling for his ouster for weeks.

USA Gymnastics has undergone a massive overhaul in the last year. Former president Steve Penny, named as a co-defendant in Raisman's lawsuit, resigned last March. Longtime chairman of the board Paul Parilla, another co-defendant in the suit, and the rest of the board stepped down in January under heavy pressure from the USOC. USA Gymnastics also ended its relationship with the Karolyi Ranch in January and is currently searching for a new training center.

Raisman doesn't believe either organization is going far enough fast enough for future generations of athletes.

"It has become painfully clear that these organizations have no intention of properly addressing this problem," Raisman said. "After all this time, they remain unwilling to conduct a full investigation, and without a solid understanding of how this happened, it is delusional to think sufficient changes can be implemented."

Raisman's lawsuit claims both organizations focused on medals instead of the well-being of the athletes, a model that allowed Nassar's behavior to go unchecked for years.

The lawsuit says the USOC "had a culture and atmosphere that conceals known and suspected sexual abusers, which transcends all policies and procedures that are set-in place." Raisman believes the USOC ignored its own mandates "to protect its reputation and blind itself to known abusers within the ranks of the NGBs (National Governing Bodies) for which it is responsible."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Larry Nassar arrives in court to be sentenced by Judge Janice Cunningham for three counts of criminal sexual assault in Eaton County Circuit Court on Feb. 5, 2018, in Charlotte, Michigan. Nassar has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 150 girls and young women while he was a physician for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. Cunningham sentenced Nassar to 40 to 125 years in prison. He is currently serving a 60-year sentence in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Last month a judge in Ingham County, Michigan sentenced Nassar to an 40 to 175 years in prison after he plead guilty to sexually assaulting seven girls. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)