Larry Nassar, former USA Gymnastics doctor, sentenced to 40 to 175 years for sex crimes
More than 150 girls and women described alleged sex abuse
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Will Hobson.
Disgraced former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years and up to 175 years in a Michigan State prison. Today’s sentence ends a marathon sentencing hearing that featured statements from more than 150 girls and women who asserted he sexually abused them.
The sentence in a Michigan state prison is part of a plea deal in which Nassar, 54, admitted to 10 sex assault charges in two Michigan counties. The ruling comes on top of a 60-year federal sentence that Nassar also faces for child pornography crimes to which he pleaded guilty.
Before his sentencing Wednesday, Nassar turned to the courtroom and offered a brief apology, but that was quickly eclipsed when Judge Rosemarie Aquilina read from a letter Nassar wrote to the court last week, complaining about the length of his sentencing hearing, terming some of the victim’s accounts “fabricated.” As Aquilina read excerpts, some in the courtroom gasped.
“My treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised me,” Aquilina read from Nassar’s letter. “ . . . The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. . . . Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
The judge then addressed Nassar, whom a prosecutor said might be one of the most prolific pedophiles in history
“It was not treatment what you did; it was not medical,” Aquilina said. “I wouldn’t send my dogs to you, sir.”
She then issued her sentence, saying:
“I just signed your death warrant.”
The sentencing hearing that began last Tuesday in Lansing, Mich., was expected to feature 88 victim’s statements and take four days. Ultimately, it spanned seven days.
Dozens more girls and women came forward to confront Nassar, including Olympians Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney. The parade of harrowing accounts of Nassar’s alleged abuse — often done under the guise of pain therapy, often with parents in the room — introduced fresh national attention and outrage to a case whose core facts have been well-established for nearly a year.
“Leave your pain here,” the judge told one young woman, “and go out and do your magnificent things.”
Fallout at Michigan State and USA Gymnastics
On Tuesday, the NCAA, which had remained silent on the Nassar case, sent Michigan State a letter regarding potential rules violations.
Victims have said they complained about Nassar’s conduct to Michigan State athletics officials as far back as 1997, and in 2014 an investigation by the school’s Title IX office cleared Nassar after a woman alleged he assaulted her. The school’s attorneys have insisted Michigan State officials did not mishandle prior complaints, and asserted Nassar’s methods of abuse were particularly insidious and difficult to detect.
On Wednesday, Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon resigned. School officials last week acquiesced to requests from victims and their attorneys for an independent review of the university’s culpability for Nassar’s crimes. The state attorney general’s office has agreed to conduct the inquiry.
Many of the victims took aim at USA Gymnastics during the sentencing hearing. Raisman said the organization is “rotting from the inside.” On Monday, USA Gymnastics, whose former chief executive resigned last March over the Nassar case, announced that three board members had also resigned. AT&T became the latest sponsor to drop USA Gymnastics.
