Larry Nassar's Victims Reach $138.7 Million Settlement Over Botched FBI Probe
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Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to 40-175 years in prison for various sexual abuse crimes, as well as 60 years for child pornography.
The U.S. Justice Department announced on April 23 that it had settled with more than 100 people in a $138.7 million settlement over accusations that the FBI mishandled allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016.
He's currently serving his time in the Coleman II U.S. Penitentiary near Orlando, Florida.
The U.S. Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it had settled with more than 100 people in a $138.7 million settlement over accusations that the FBI mishandled allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016. The former USA Gymnastics doctor continued to prey on victims during that time.
As of now, $1 billion has been set aside by different organizations to compensate the women who said that Nassar sexually assaulted them while claiming he was treating them for sports injuries, the Associated Press reports.
After more than 300 women (including Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman and Simone Biles) came forward with stories of Nassar's sexual abuse disguised as "medical treatments," the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State gymnastics team doctor pled guilty to the sexual abuse of underage girls and began his life sentence in prison in 2017.
The sexual abuse scandal at the top tier of U.S. gymnastics has stuck with the sport for years, from Larry Nassar's trial all the way up to the Tokyo Olympics and beyond.
In 2021, a group of 90 women that included former U.S. Olympic team gymnasts Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman filed a new lawsuit against the FBI, according to The Washington Post. They claimed that the agency mishandled its investigation of Nassar and allowed him to continue to abuse them, even after they had reported him to the bureau in 2015. They sought more than $1 billion.
So what happened to Nassar and where is he now? Here's what you need to know.
Nassar was sentenced to life in prison.
In February 2018, he was sentenced to 40-175 years in prison for various sexual abuse charges, to be served after a separate 60-year sentence for child pornography, according to CNN. That means he’ll serve at least 100 years in prison—effectively a life sentence. (You can see the powerful moment the judge delivered the sentencing to him in the trailer for At The Heart Of Gold below.)
Though much of Nassar’s abuse took place at the Karolyi ranch and training facility in Texas (owned by Bela and Martha Karolyi, the famous USA Gymnastics coaching duo), he was tried in Michigan, where he also committed abuse at John Geddert's Twistars USA Gymnastics Club, Michigan State University, and his home (which he shared with wife Stephanie) in Holt, Michigan.
Nassar spoke before his sentencing, sharing this statement, per CNN: “The words expressed by everyone that has spoken, including the parents, have impacted me to the—to my innermost core. With that being said, I understand and acknowledge that it pales in comparison to the pain, trauma and emotions that you all are feeling. It’s impossible to convey the depth and breadth of how sorry I am to each and every one involved. The visions of your testimonies will forever be present in my thoughts.”
He served time in Florida.
Nassar served time at Coleman II U.S. Penitentiary, located about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida, before being transferred. He was transferred there after being physically assaulted at his former prison in Tucson, Arizona, only hours after being released to the general prison population, according to the Washington Post.
The Florida penitentiary is known for being a safer prison for inmates who are likely to be attacked in other prisons (like informants and sex offenders), and houses a number of high-profile inmates like notorious ex-mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, per the Washington Post.
Nassar’s attorneys have argued that Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who sentenced Nassar, holds some blame for his first attack, saying she made “efforts to demonize Dr. Nassar in front of the entire world,” “openly lamented that she could not impose cruel and unusual punishment upon the defendant” and “indicated her expectation that he would be harmed in prison.”
His attorneys also tried to have Judge Aquilina removed from hearing Nassar’s appeal for a new sentence, which she denied, telling the court, “This is not Burger King—he will not have it his way.”
Nassar tried to appeal his case.
In April 2019, the Michigan Supreme Court denied two of Nassar’s appeals to challenge his molestation charges, per the LA Times, and Nassar has also pursued additional appeals that involved alleged bias in remarks made by Judge Aquilina.
He hasn't paid back his victims.
A court filing uncovered that in 2021, Nassar had spent more than $10,000 from his Federal Bureau of Prisons account—but only $300 of that money ever went to victims, according to The Washington Post. Nassar currently owes thousands to victims, but has avoided making payments because the money that inmates deposit into their accounts is largely kept shielded from collection.
"If the Bureau of Prisons isn’t enforcing these policies with Larry Nassar—who is among the worst of offenders—then which inmates are held to account?" asked Jason Wojdylo. Wojdylo retired from the U.S. Marshals Service after years of unsuccessful work trying to convince the Bureau to make felons pay their debts.
Nassar's account had grown by more than $12,000 from 2017 to 2021, the court filing said. He even received two COVID-19 stimulus payments from the federal government totaling $2,000.
"The notion that anybody in the Justice Department would let this happen is just revolting," said John Manly, a lawyer for many of Nassar's victims (including Simone Biles). "The timing of this, with my client being unable to compete because of what happened to her, couldn’t be more upsetting."
"They’re allowing the worst child predator in American history to spend thousands of dollars on himself and pay $8 a month to his victims," Manly continued. "Something is completely broken and needs to be fixed."
A 2021 report found that the FBI made mistakes in its investigation.
In July 2021, the Department of Justice also released a 119-page report detailing errors the FBI made in its original investigation into Nassar.
The report "found that senior officials in the FBI Indianapolis Field Office failed to respond to the Lawrence Gerard Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that the allegations deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and failed to notify state or local authorities of the allegations or take other steps to mitigate the ongoing threat posed by Nassar," per CNN.
Many U.S. public officials spoke out about the injustices that were revealed in the report. "How many athletes would have been spared unimaginable pain if the FBI had done its job? The Department of Justice now needs to decide if it is going to be yet another institution that fails survivors or if it is going to enforce some measure of accountability for these crimes," read a joint statement released by Senators Richard Blumenthal and Jerry Moran, who were both on a Senate panel that investigated abuse on U.S. Olympic teams.
The FBI responded with: "This should not have happened. The FBI will never lose sight of the harm that Nassar's abuse caused. The actions and inactions of certain FBI employees described in the Report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization."
In April 2024, the Department of Justice awarded a $138.7 million settlement to 139 victims of Nassar after they alleged that the FDA botched its handling of accusations against the doctor. Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said, per the AP, that the allegations against Nassar “should have been taken seriously from the outset.”
“While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing,” Mizer said.
In 2021, the gymnasts won a $380 settlement.
In December 2021, an Indianapolis bankruptcy court ordered the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and USA Gymnastics to pay a settlement totaling $380 million to all of the gymnasts. The settlement also requires USA Gymnastics to create a seat on its board that will be filled by one of the gymnasts named in the suit, according to The Washington Post.
Their attorney, John Manly, said in a statement that “we prevailed for one simple reason, the courage and tenacity of the survivors."
“These brave women relived their abuse publicly in countless media interviews so that not one more child will be forced to suffer physical, emotional or sexual abuse in pursuit of their dreams," he added.
In June 2022, the gymnasts filed a lawsuit against the FBI for more than $1 billion.
A group of 90 women—including Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, and Aly Raisman—are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI in a lawsuit filed under the Federal Tort Claims Act. This 1946 law makes the United States liable for injuries “caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting within the scope of his office or employment,” per The Washington Post.
They joined 13 others who in April 2022 filed a similar lawsuit against the FBI, citing an earlier report released by the Justice Department’s inspector general that found the bureau failed to properly investigate serious sex-abuse allegations against Nassar, according to the The Washington Post.
In 2023, he was stabbed multiple times.
Nassar was reportedly stabbed multiple times in prison in July 2023. The Associated Press reported that he was in an altercation with another incarcerated person and was stabbed in the back and chest, but is in stable condition. The attack happened after Nassar allegedly said "I wish there were girls playing," while watching the women's Wimbledon tennis tournament on TV, per the AP.
This wasn’t the first time he was stabbed. Nassar was also attacked in 2018 while he was being held in a prison in Tucson, Ariz., just hours after being released into the general population at the prison, according to The Detroit News. He was transferred to an Oklahoma detention facility after authorities found that he couldn’t be held safely at the Arizona prison.
Nassar is now being held at the United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg, in Pennsylvania, where his expected release date is Jan. 30, 2068, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
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