Former Doctor to U.S. Gymnastics Team Sentenced for Sexual Assault

For around twenty years, Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar was the trusted team doctor for the USA Gymnastics team, as well as an associate professor for Michigan State University for 19 years. Throughout the course of four Olympic games, he treated countless athletes under the guise of “healing” them. Instead, they were sexually assaulted.

Victims from as far back as 1998 came out of the woodwork, Time Magazine reports, uniting their voices to take down Nassar in court. Although Nassar has already been sentenced to 60 years in prison by a federal court in Michigan for the possession of 37,000 pornographic videos and images of children, on Wednesday, January 24, 2018, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced Nassar to 40 to 175 additional years for the separate cases involving USA gymnasts.

Over the course of the trial, all 140 or so victims were invited to speak in court against Nassar over the course of six days. Some read their statements in person, while others, such as Catharine Hannum, had statements read on their behalf. Hannum told of how Nassar “fondled her breast and had an erection during an appointment,” the New York Times reports. Another of the victims was Aly Raisman, a U.S Olympic gold medalist, who addressed Nassar in person on Friday saying, “Larry, you do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force, and you are nothing.” Gymnast Kyle Stephens further stabbed at Nassar, saying “little girls don’t stay little forever,” and that “They grow into strong women that… destroy your world.”

Raisman’s and Stephens’s voices joined the estimated 98 other victim statements read over the course of six days, though even more have come forward to speak out against Nassar in unity with the others.

Despite a six-page letter from Nassar that accused Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of forcing him to listen to the women as part of a ruse to obtain media attention, Aquilina fiercely refuted this statement in court, and the victim statements continued.

In response to the case, the New York Times reports that the USA Gymnastics Board Chairman, Paul Parilla, has resigned as well as Vice Chairman Jay Binder, and Treasurer, Bitsy Kelley.

The USA Gymnastics organization has also cut ties with the Karolyi Ranch, where some of the best gymnasts had gone to train, but where Nassar had also reportedly molested many of his victims.

Michigan State University has been under fire as well, with many people insisting that the school’s president, Lou Anna K. Simon, resign from her position. There have even been organized protests.

The impact of Nassar’s case extends much wider than the USA Gymnastics team and Michigan State University, its tendrils even reaching Saint Lawrence. Lexi Barile ’21 reacted to the matter by saying, “Having been an athlete my entire life, and having been on multiple ski teams, I’ve dealt with a lot of doctors. It’s hard to imagine that someone you put your trust into that much would ever be able to do something like that.”

As of Wednesday Morning, the case has been adjourned, with Nassar being sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for the assaults of women under his care.