Spotlight
One year: Nassar questions remain BY MADISON O’CONNOR MOCONNOR@STATENEWS.COM
All eyes are on him as he walks into the courtroom. Clothed in an orange jumpsuit and plastic sandals, he sits next to his attorneys in the hard, wooden chair. He says nothing. The judge enters the room. Plaintiffs, most of them teenage girls, some of them older, enter the courtroom one at a time. Each time one of the girls and women sits, attorneys ask them to identify her alleged abuser: Larry Nassar. And each time, they point to the man in the orange jumpsuit, sitting in a hard, wooden chair. He says nothing. Fast forward to today, where Nassar now sits in federal prison. The number of women who have alleged he has sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment has grown to 119. He faces 39 criminal charges in Ingham and Eaton County courts, with trial dates to come in early 2018. He has also pled guilty to three child pornography-related charges, and his sentencing for these charges is set for November. He’s listed as a defendant in a number of civil cases, many alongside MSU. But just a year ago, Nassar was a doctor everyone was talking about in the gymnastics community – Not only had he worked with MSU as a doctor in its osteopathic medicine department, he worked with the U.S. National Team through USA Gymnastics, or USAG, and young gymnasts from Twistars Gymnastics Club. He was “the” doctor for gymnasts to go to, the best of the best. He was, as put by an alleged victim, viewed by the gymnasts as a “god.” So, what happened? The doctor Nassar was hired by MSU in 1997 – shortly after he was hired by USAG in 1996. For 20 years, Nassar built a reputation as the go-to gymnastics doctor, and he had connections not just to MSU and USAG, but a number of other organizations as well. He volunteered to treat patients weekly at Twistars Gymnastics Club, located in Dimondale and DeWitt, Michigan, and in the basement of his home. He created a foundation, Gymnastics Doctor Autism Foundation, to fuse gymnastics and autism together. Nassar was also closely connected with John Geddert, owner of Twistars Gymnastics Club, and Kathie Klages, MSU’s former gymnastics head coach. Klages was suspended by MSU on Feb. 13 after she was accused of defending Nassar and discouraging athletes from reporting sexual abuse. According to court documents, Klages was reported to have been aware of allegations of sexual abuse as early as 1997. Klages retired the next day. Nassar’s involvement didn’t end with gymnastics. In November, Nassar ran for the Board of Education for Holt Public Schools in Holt, Michigan, but failed to win one of two seats. Nassar was also a catechist for St. Thomas Aquinas Church’s seventh grade class and served as a Eucharistic minister in the East Lansing-based parish. As his reputation in these communities grew, so did the num-
Name: Madeline Sundeck; Width: 18p6; Depth: 3 in; Color: Black; Ad Number: 54215; Customer Name: ASMSU; Size: 6 in
Judge Donald Allen Jr. looks at Larry Nassar during the final day of the preliminary examination hearing in the 55th District Court on June 23. STATE NEWS FILE PHOTO.
ber of sex abuse allegations against him. There are now claims that Nassar abused girls at MSU, Twistars Gymnastics Club, his home and while traveling at USAG events. St. Thomas Aquinas Church has avoided addressing ties to Nassar. And his foundation appears to have violated state law since 2014, as it hadn’t renewed state-required registrations but was still soliciting donations. In 2014, Nassar was investigated by MSU’s Title IX office for allegations of sexual abuse, but the university cleared him and he was required to have a chaperone for all medical appointments. But according to plaintiff testimonies during preliminary examination hearings this summer, Nassar continued treating patients at his MSU clinic without a chaperone, which would be a direct violation of MSU’s sanction. In the 2014 investigation, it was found Nassar allegedly chose the experts to evaluate him. Following Nassar’s termination from MSU in September, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette took over the MSU police investigation in October. At the same time, Nassar was under investigation by the FBI. In December, Nassar was indicted for the possession of at least 37,000 images of child pornography and was ordered to be held without bond later that month. His license to practice medicine was suspended in January. The article She had waited 17 years for someone to believe her. Waited 17 years for the chance to stop Larry Nassar’s access to young girls, she said. Other than those she was closest to, no one knew about Rachael Denhollander’s allegations that Nassar abused her as a 15-year-old gymnast at MSU in 2000.
PLAS
LABS, Inc. ®
HIRING NOW
Wanted to hire full OR part time, a person with basic machining and craftsmanship skills to work with plastics in a small Lansing company specializing in scientific research equipment. Many benefits PLUS Profit Sharing. Send resume to P.O. 1245, East Lansing, Michigan 48823
Be sure to visit our NEW website at www.PLAS-LABS.com 4
THE STATE N EWS
THURSDAY, SEPT E MB E R 7, 2 01 7
A year ago, Denhollander found the opportunity to share her story. After reading part of an investigative series into USA Gymnastics’ failure to alert authorities of sex abuse allegations from IndyStar, an Indianapolis-based newspaper, she picked up the phone and called the reporters. “If I had seen any chance – any tiny chance – of someone listening for the last 17 years, I would’ve done this years ago,” Denhollander said. “I really would have. But I had no hope of anyone listening beforehand. That IndyStar report was the first chance I saw.” Denhollander is under a gag order, which limits what accusers and their lawyers can say about criminal sexual assault allegations. All of Denhollander’s comments pertain to what she has claimed civilly, not criminally, she said. Her call was received by IndyStar reporters Marisa Kwiatkowski, Tim Evans and Mark Alesia, who worked on the investigative series. The reporters also received two other calls about the investigative series: one from California and one from New York, Evans said. Every story was nearly identical – each of the three women claimed Nassar abused her under the guise of medical treatment. Each claimed Nassar didn’t use gloves and there were no staff chaperones in the room, a requirement after the 2014 Title IX investigation. These claims have also been made by a number of other women, and additionally, many women have claimed Nassar gave them gifts and digitally penetrated them. “It seemed so remarkable the stories were so similar – we kind of did background work to make sure that these three people didn’t have any connection, that they were just three independent people, but it just seemed so odd that their stories were so aligned,” Evans said. Over the next month and a half, the IndyStar reporters worked with the three women, MSU and USAG to create the first article that brought Nassar’s name to light. It featured two of the women who called IndyStar, one of whom was Denhollander. After the article was published Sept. 12, and in response to it, Nassar was fired by MSU on Sept. 20, 2016.
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
WATER QUALITY REPORT Michigan State University’s 2016 Water Quality Report is now available online for review. The report is a general overview of the water quality provided in 2016.
See report at ipf.msu.edu/waterquality