T H E G R A N D R A P I D S P R ES S
‘I can’t be the only one’ “So I shut down the fear and shame I was feeling, and told myself, this is what I need to do to get better.” ‘I’VE FELT SO STUPID’
Denhollander had two other reasons not to question Nassar. She knew from a family friend that intravaginal physical therapy was a recognized medical treatment. The other factor is Moxon was in the exam room while the treatments were occurring. “I thought (my mother) knew” what Nassar was doing, Denhollander said. But Moxon said her view was blocked. Moreover, Nassar was making casual conversation with Moxon throughout the visit, Denhollander and Moxon recall. “He was so brash, he did it right under my nose and I couldn’t tell,” Moxon says now. “I’ve felt so stupid” in the years since. Between January and April 2000, Denhollander said she had at least four more appointments with Nassar in which she received similar treatments that involved vaginal and sometimes rectal penetration — all in front of her mother, all under the guise of treating her hip and back. During the final time, Denhollander says, Nassar had an erection. At that point, Nassar flipped her on her side, unhooked her bra and massaged her breasts, Denhollander said. “When he went up my shirt, I was confident there was no medical purpose for that,” Denhollander said. “But I continued to think the other aspects of the treatment were legitimate myofascial release.” Denhollander still didn’t say anything to her mother, although it turns out that Moxon also saw Nassar’s erection. “I didn’t know that Rachael had noticed, and I didn’t want to plant the power of suggestion,” Moxon said. Denhollander broke her foot shortly after that appointment, and although she continued to see Nassar through early 2001, those visits focused on her foot. While she was increasingly uncomfortable with the doctor, Denhollander said, “Everyone at the gym knew I was seeing him. If I stopped, I would have had to give an explanation.” ‘WHAT IS GOING ON?’
Over the next year, Moxon recalls, her daughter was becoming increasingly withdrawn and seemed bothered by even a casual touch. “One day when we were doing dishes, I asked her,
‘What is going on?’” Moxon recalled, and Denhollander told her in detail about Nassar’s treatments. As the mother and daughter talked, they weren’t sure what to think. They figured “this is something he does regularly. This must be legitimate or they wouldn’t let him do it,” Denhollander said. “I was so confused,” she said. “I couldn’t reconcile even the parts that I knew that were assault with what he was supposed to be.” And if it wasn’t legitimate, Denhollander and her parents were at a loss as to how to hold Nassar accountable. “How do we prove it?” Moxon said. “He’s an internationally known doctor. He had just come back from the Olympic games. Who’s going to believe us?” But Denhollander couldn’t let go of the nagging suspicion that Nassar was a predator. By 2004, she was coaching gymnastics and a colleague mentioned she referred several young gymnasts to Nassar. “I had a very serious conversation with her,” in which she detailed her experience with Nassar, Denhollander said. The conversation didn’t prevent the coach from sending new patients to Nassar, Denhollander said, and the woman suggested Denhollander keep quiet, for fear it would hurt her in the gymnastics community. “I thought at that point, if I can’t even get (her) to believe me, somebody who knows me and can’t even trust my story enough to stop sending little girls to him, nobody will ever listen to what I have to say,” Denhollander said. Still, Denhollander quietly researched intravaginal treatments and quizzed acquaintances who were medical professionals. “They were all very distressed at what I described to them,” Denhollander said. “It did not match any technique they had training in. It did not match the medical literature they sent to me. “But I didn’t know where the line was,” she said. “I didn’t have enough evidence to be 100 percent sure” it was sexual assault. GOING PUBLIC
Denhollander moved on with her life. She got a law degree. Got married. She and her husband now live in Louisville, Kentucky, where she cares for the couple’s three young children and her husband attends a Southern Baptist seminary. SEE ONE, D5
2016
2014
2000
Repeated complaint: According to her lawsuit filed in December, Lopez tells two more trainers that she feels Nassar is being sexually inappropriate, and is told again that she is receiving a standard treatment.
2003
National award: Nassar receives USA Gymnastics Shirley Marshack Memorial Award for the Development of the Talent Opportunity Program.
Second police report: A young woman files 2007 a report with MSU Appointed to police saying she was state board: sexually abused by Nassar is Nassar during medical treatment. MSU appointed by police investigate Gov. Jennifer and forward case Granholm to to Ingham County the Michigan Board of Athletic prosecutor’s office, which determines Trainers, which treatment was medioversees their cally appropriate. licensing.
Accusers go public: In September, the Indianapolis Star reports abuse allegations made by Denhollander and the former Olympian. Nassar is fired by MSU days later, and MSU police begin to get new complaints. Nassar charged: The woman alleging abuse from age 6 files a police complaint. In November, Nassar is charged with criminal sexual conduct charges involving the family friend. In December, he is charged with having child pornography on his computer.
SU N DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 2 , 2 0 17
D3
SILENT FROM D2
criminal and civil complaints from other Nassar patients. To date, at least 50 women have filed criminal complaints, which are being investigated by MSU police and the Michigan Attorney General’s office, and at least 26 women have filed lawsuits. There are also 10 Title IX complaints against MSU. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on gender and, in part, requires schools that take federal funds to take immediate action to address sexual violence. Simon said in her message MSU is conducting an internal review and complying with law enforcement requests. “While the investigations continue, one fact appears clear. Based on the dozens of criminal complaints made against Nassar to MSU Police and the criminal charges brought against him by the Michigan Attorney General and federal U.S. Attorney’s Office, Nassar abused the trust of his patients and his professional responsibility as a physician,” she wrote. “At this point, Larry Nassar has more victims than Jerry Sandusky,” the abuser in the Penn State case, alleged John Manly, one of the attorneys working with some of Nassar’s accusers. Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual conduct related to 10 victims; and Penn State has paid settlements to 33 victims who filed civil complaints. Manly said it’s not just Nassar who needs to answer for what happened. “This was all avoidable, if someone had just taken action back in 1997 when this was first reported,” Manly said. “When you’ve got a 17- or 18-year-old girl telling coaches and trainers that a doctor is putting his hand inside her vagina for 30 to 40 minutes without a glove or lubrication, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you need to report that,” he said. ‘TOP OF HIS PROFESSION’
Nassar first became an athletic trainer while attending North Farmington High School, where he graduated in 1981. He was especially drawn to gymnasts. “What they did with their bodies and what they went through was amazing to me,” he said in a 2012 story in Greater Lansing Sport magazine. Nassar received his kinesiology degree from the University of Michigan in 1985; graduated from MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1993; and did a four-year residency in family and sports medicine at St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing. Meanwhile, Nassar began volunteering with USA Gymnastics in 1986, starting out as an athletic trainer for the U.S. national team. He filled similar roles for MSU football and at Twistars. In 1996, Nassar, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, was named chief medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics and became the team doctor for U.S. gymnasts at the Olympics in Atlanta. It was still unpaid, volunteer work, but the experience and exposure were priceless. Nassar “may be young, but he’s just risen to the top of his profession,” MSU said in a 1996 news release. When he finished his residency in 1997, Nassar joined the MSU faculty, an appointment that included teaching, seeing patients at MSU’s sports-medicine clinics and serving as team doctor to various MSU athletic teams, primarily women’s gymnastics and crew. “He is eager and dynamic and appears to have exceptional interpersonal skills,” said a memo recommending his appointment from his MSU personnel file. “He is well-known and respected nationally and internationally in the field of Sports Medicine.” Nassar’s MSU personnel file, obtained by MLive under the Freedom of Information Act, shows Nassar continued to get high marks over the next 20 years. A 2013 job evaluation noted his dedication, compassion, and “tireless commitment” to his specialty within the gymnastics community. Six times, Nassar was voted National Contributor of the Year by the Elite Gymnastics Coaches Association. In 2012, he received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine. He was lauded for starting a gymnastics program for autistic children. Nassar also was a high-profile community figure, especially in Holt, where he lived with his wife, a physician assistant, and their three children. Nassar taught catechism classes at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in East Lansing, was team doctor at Holt High School and ran for the Holt school board this past fall. After Nassar was fired in September, he sent an email to his supervisor at MSU. “I am so sorry that this situation has been so public in the media, casting such a shadow over myself and MSU,” Nassar wrote. “I understand your position and appreciate all the support you have given me. My heart is breaking but I will stay strong in my Faith and with the support of my family and my friends I will overcome this.” ‘SOMETHING REALLY WEIRD’
Of the sex-abuse allegations made public against Nassar, the earliest involves a former Olympic gymnast who filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles. To protect her anonymity, the lawsuit lists the woman as Jane JD Doe. She is described as a bronze medalist on the 2000 Olympics gymnastics team. She first came into contact with Nassar in 1994, as an adolescent competing with the U.S. national team, the lawsuit says. While treating her injuries, the suit says, Nassar groped her body and made “inappropriate” conversation about sex. Nassar then moved on to “intravaginal adjustments” — SEE SILENT, D5
2002
Alleged complaint to coach: Rachael Denhollander says she told a Kalamazoo-area coach she suspects she was abused during treatments with Nassar during the winter and spring of 2000, when she was 15. She says she was advised to keep quiet.
2004
Police report: A 16-year-old gymnast treated by Nassar at MSU’s sports-medicine clinic files a report with Meridian Township police saying she was abused during a medical treatment. No criminal charges are sought. Allegation to counselor: According to an Ingham County court document, a 12-year-old girl who frequently visited the Nassar home tells a counselor she has been abused by Nassar since she was 6. Nassar denies it to the counselor; law enforcement is not notified.
2012
Alumnus of the Year: Nassar is named Alumnus of the Year by MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine for “exemplifying the best practices of the osteopathic profession.”
2015
Ties cut: USA Gymnastics quietly stops using Nassar, and later says it was because of unspecified “athletes’ concerns.” MSU is not notified of concerns, and Nassar continues at sports clinic, and working with college and high school athletes.
2017
Civil lawsuits: A federal lawsuit is filed against Twistars, USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University. Plaintiffs now include 24 alleged victims who sought treatment from Nassar.
In this July 15, 2008, file photo, Larry Nassar, D.O., or Doctor of Osteopathy, works with a patient in East Lansing. Becky Shink, Lansing State Journal, via AP files