Former U.S. Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar has been sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing athletes under the guise of medical treatment.
Nassar worked with the Olympic gymnastics team, but had also previously worked with a wide range of sports. He was a faculty member at Michigan State, working with college athletes across multiple sports.
Nassar’s sentencing hearing allowed all of the women who had accused him of sexual abuse to speak to him directly in court. More than 150 of them spoke over the seven-day hearing, one of the highest-profile examples of the wave of women coming forward with sexual abuse allegations in entertainment, sports and other industries.
Nassar had already been sentenced to 60 years in prison in a child pornography case, then pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct. This sentence will leave the 54-year-old Nassar in prison for the rest of his life. Judge Rosemary Aquilina said as much when she handed down Nassar’s sentence. Per the New York Times:
“You’ve done nothing to deserve to walk outside a prison again,” she said, according to the Times. “It is my honor and privilege to sentence you. I just signed your death warrant.”
Nassar addressed the court before the sentencing, apologizing to his victims and saying “Your words these past several days have had a significant effect on myself and have shaken me to my core. I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days.”
“You’ve done nothing to deserve to walk outside a prison again,” she said, according to the Times. “It is my honor and privilege to sentence you. I just signed your death warrant.”
I know he did horrible things, but NOBODY should take satisfaction in this.
that is true. BUT, to understand, that you have to (or should) respect every person no matter what they have done is a far more mature and difficult thing to do, than the average person is ever capable of. so it doesnt surprise me.
and i think only the last sentence was too exaggerated and disrepectful, the rest was fair.
A bad man for sure. US Gymnastics should be required to pay for counseling for life for all victims.
You wonder about the coaches … So many girls abused, and none of the coaches sensed anything was amiss?
One of the coaches did overhear a victim and her teammate discussing and intervened; earlier on in the hearings there was at least one case of it (of the 160+).
2015 with Maggie Kelly , who entered the elite ranks a little later than normal . This may be the reason Maggie was even discussing it , because she was not exposed & X hypnotised at 10- 14 like the rest .
Many coaches throughout the country suspected but few gymnasts ever reached the elite ranks that would be treated by Larry at The Ranch . ( lesser gymnasts from the Michigan area were however & many of these girls spoke ) .
I had email conversations on this very subject back in 2007 with a friend whose daughter had just married a gym coach at a big club . He used to take girls to the Ranch but… Read more »
The 2012 Head Olympic coach, John Geddert, was Nassar’s primary enabler. Nassar was the team doctor for Geddert’s club, Twistars. Nassar had an ‘office’ on site and out of the way at Geddert’s gym. Geddert would refuse to believe any diagnosis of injury, illness, etc., unless it came directly from Nassar. Girls signed up on a list posted outside of Nassar’s ‘office’ to be seen each night. They would wait hours after workout concluded, sometimes until midnight, and long after the coaches had gone home, just to see Nassar. They would see Nassar alone, without any other adult present, in his ‘office’ where he sexually abused them under the guide of ‘treatment’. Every night this happened. It’s absolutely horrific and… Read more »
Obviously great to put this guy behind bars, but it is normal for judges to be so…dramatic in their sentencing?
Yeah, my thoughts, exactly. Wow.
I listened to about five of the videos, if I had listened to all 150, I would probably be dramatic too.
um, yes.
here’s just one example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Poe#Controversies
Most judges do a hell of a lot of moralizing, but it’s usually just to poor and/or black kids.
https://twitter.com/ellievhall/status/956222097612791809
A sentencing judge doesn’t need to be impartial. It’s not a trial. Nassar in this case was already convicted of, and sentenced, in the child porn case. Nassar also pleaded guilty to 7 counts in this case, so he was already going to be sentenced for a minimum of 40 years. This plea agreement was irrevocable, and the 40 was the minimum.
Back to the judge: gathering the impact statements allows for any additional years to be added to the sentence at the “judgment” of the judge. The process of allowing the statements supports any “judgment” she can make as to the additional length of the sentence. Since statements are allowed, why not allow more? The judge’s judgment wasn’t… Read more »
ALL judges need to be impartial – to not let their personal feelings and beliefs cloud their role in dispensing justice as it has evolved statutorily or under common law. The system is SUPPOSED to be one wherein the laws and rules governing conduct are known and knowable – something that is frustrated by a lack of impartiality – both during the trial and sentencing phases. The judge is certainly free to express the impression that the testimony and other evidence on him/her and how that affected the sentence, but this judge was clearly playing to the media. The comment to which you were responding said absolutely nothing about limiting how many victims spoke. The comment said nothing about “the… Read more »
One scum bag goes down but we still have this whole power structure problem that’s resulting in sexual abuse among children and this is not just the case in USA Gymnastics. If you think about it, that’s the real story in all this but it’s way easier to wag the finger at an individual rather that rock the boat of these institutions.
We also can’t forget the bold statement made by some of these young ladies talking about how they were scared to speak out against ANYTHING at these camps and practices. Let that sink in for a moment.
I know USA Swimming has to be a tad nervous with this story (among others) although the house has been… Read more »
https://www.si.com/olympics/2018/01/24/larry-nassar-sentencing-usa-gymnastics-abuse-victims-michigan-state
Can’t agree with that more strongly. People have to be severely punished at MSU, USAG and even the USOC, at minimum. In one potential world, those three institutions wouldn’t exist anymore.
I like the sound of “burn it all down.” Wouldn’t hurt to do the same thing with any athletic federation that oversees youth development. Just scratch the whole system and reboot it with athlete protection at the center from the very beginning.
I haven’t done a ton of keeping up on this story, so forgive my ignorance, but something strikes me as interesting about why he got away with this for so long. In the case of abusive coaches, people often look away because they produce good athletes and get good results. Rick Curl and Joe Bernal come to mind, and plenty of other coaches from other sports all got a pass because no one wanted to mess up the… Read more »
Listen to Mattie Larson statement. It may help you to get the picture.
That doesn’t answer my question at all, just confirms that the dude molested them and ruined a lot of lives.
With the famous coaches that get caught, it often comes out that people turned a blind eye because he was producing great athletes. It’s an absolute disgrace, but it happens. Any sports doctor or physical therapist could do Nassar’s job, probably better, and without molesting anyone, so that element of “Oh, he’s too valuable for me to get him in trouble” or whatever, that some people use to justify their silence, is not there.
Not just in sports, either. Look at Harvey Weinstein. Tons of people knew he was misusing his influence, and they did nothing because he was… Read more »
He operated in the environment with zero transparency, where adults haven’t pay a sh..t to the well-being of very young and in majority very innocent inexperienced girls. In isolated training camps they had nobody around to complain to or express their concerns. That was the ideal situation for the coaching staff to control, manipulate and keep quiet young gymnasts who actually had what to lose – Olympic Games. Nassar was just convenient part of this system covering up coaches’ mistakes or negligence that led to injuries. They may didn’t know the extent of this abuse, but definitely new that he did something that hardly can be called a medical treatment. I think that adults in these training camps were as… Read more »
A little hyperbolic? Do away with the entire institution of MSU? 50,000+ students lose their university? I understand the anger, but arguing that one option is that MSU “wouldn’t exist anymore” seems a tad extreme. Punish those who dropped the ball on putting a stop to things, but don’t add to the list of his victims – i.e. those innocent students, employees, etc., who had nothing to do with the debacle.
That reasoning is why we still have Penn State and Baylor.
And a good reason people will “drop the ball” at another institution again. Institutions need to be held to account, too.
The “institution” played no role. The people occupying the various positions did and the procedures failed to ensure appropriate actions were taken so need correction. You hold them accountable and put in place the controls to ensure that there is not a repeat of what went on – you don’t demolish the entire university, end the employment of all other employees, force the faculty and students/athletes to go elsewhere, decimate the communities in which the university sits, etc., etc., etc. Proportional response is what called for.
Too short of a sentence
feels enough to me – he will have enough time to reflect on his actions ….