Ultimately, Nassar pled guilty in November to first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges involving seven women, which includes Denhollander herself.
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The same police department that declined to take a 17-year-old girl’s concerns about Larry Nassar to prosecutors in 2004 paid for her flight from Seattle to MI so she could speak at Nassar’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.
“I can not believe I ever trusted you, and I will never forgive you”, gymnast Brooke Hylek said Tuesday.
“I just signed your death warrant”, said Aquilina.
Many victims said they reported Nassar’s abuse to various members of Michigan State’s staff. Campus police got its first report regarding Nassar in 2014, but the Ingham County prosecutor declined to file charges.
“The courage of the women who have spoken out and testified about their sexual assault by former Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar is dramatic and the harm they endured is appalling”.
“Mr. Nassar, do I look familiar to you?”
“The objective of this message is to tell all of Nassar’s victims and survivors, directly, how incredibly sorry we are”, Blackmun, who became chief executive of USOC in 2010, wrote in the letter. In 2014, Nassar was cleared in an investigation by the school after a woman alleged he assaulted her. Attorneys for Michigan State have said Nassar’s sexual abuse was invidious in form, hard to detect, and that university officials did not mishandle prior complaints.
However, the USOC acknowledged the impact the case has had on the women in an open letter from CEO Scott Blackmun that began: “The athlete testimony that just concluded in the Nassar hearings framed the tragedy through the eyes of the victims and survivors, and was worse than our own worst fears”.
Aquilina said she will not be making any media statements.
“I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days”, he said, as some in the courtroom could be heard weeping.
Many victims said they complained years ago but nothing happened.
The NCAA, after all, is an organization that has rules about conducting its real investigations in secret.
Brian Breslin, chairman of the board of trustees, said Wednesday evening the board would accept Simon’s resignation. “Justice requires more than what I can do on this bench”, she added.
“It was not treatment what you did; it was not medical”, Aquilina said. Numerous victims had not previously identified themselves.
On Monday, USA Gymnastics, whose former chief executive resigned last March over the Nassar case, announced that three board members had also resigned.
Nassar remained employed at the university until September 2016, when allegations against him were first made public by a newspaper.
“We are here to show you”, said the 25-year-old, “there is no white flag to wave when it comes to protecting little girls and their futures”.
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Even with Penn State, where it seemed likely that Jerry Sandusky’s serial sexual abuse of children was ignored or dealt with internally to save a high-profile football program from significant embarrassment, the severe penalties levied (and later walked back) are now largely viewed as an overreach of NCAA power.
