After years of abusing his position, former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar is given his sentencing. Nassar was accused by multiple female gymnasts of abuse while he was serving as their team doctor. He was the team doctor for 18 years and he used his position to sexually assault and rape young female athletes under the guise of medical treatment.
It is believed that he sexually assaulted at least 265 women during his time with the USA Gymnastics team. In 2015, action was finally taken against him by the team. Although many athletes said they tried to speak up multiple times starting back as early as the 90’s, no one listened to them.
There have been at least 150 lawsuits filed against him, both state and federal, by the US Gymnastics team, gymnasts and the University he was once a professor at. Michigan State University, where Nassar was a professor for their College of Medicine, has agreed to pay $500 million to 332 victims of his abuse.
On September 15th, four US gymnasts went to Capitol Hill to talk about the lack of help they received from the FBI. These girls were Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols. They stated that the FBI “turned s blind eye” when they sought help and “went out of its way to help protect” Nassar. It has been revealed that the FBI ignored the allegations at first, covered up evidence and lied about testimony from victims.
Even though there was a major effort to keep him a free man, he was sentenced multiple times in multiple states. In 2017, he was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison. Quickly after, he was sentenced to another 40-175 years for sexually assaulting minors. His most recent sentence was given to him on February 5th, 2018 and it was another 40-125 years. In short, Larry Nassar will never be a free man again.