The 60-year-old former national team doctor is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2017 and 2018 of sexually assaulting more than 250 gymnasts, most of them minors, within the USA Gymnastics Federation. at Michigan State University and in a gymnastics club.
In a lawsuit filed in June 2022, some of Nassar’s victims alleged that the FBI mishandled credible sexual assault complaints and did not take them seriously.
The 139 plaintiffs include US Olympic gold medalists in gymnastics Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.
In 2021, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, which oversees the work of the FBI, concluded that the agency ignored the allegations against Nassar and made a series of errors.
The FBI’s investigation into Nassar began in 2015, but the inspector general’s office found mistakes in the investigation, including failing to formally document the meeting with gymnastics officials after they had completed their own five-week internal investigation. regarding Nassar’s behavior. The Inspector General’s office also cited the FBI’s failure to contact state and local authorities about the potential risk Nassar continued to pose to female athletes.
Nassar continued to see female patients for over a year after the charges against him were first filed with the FBI.
Most of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they were assaulted, although Nassar’s abuses were first reported in 2015.
“For decades, Lawrence Nassar abused his position, betraying the trust of those under his medical care and supervision while avoiding accountability,” Acting Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer said in a statement Tuesday in which he announced the agreement.
“These allegations should have been taken seriously from the beginning,” Mizer said. “While these settlements will not undo the harm Nassar has caused, our hope is that they will help provide the victims of his crimes with some of the critical support they need to continue to heal,” the prosecutor added.
McKayla Maroney said in 2022 that Nassar’s victims were “betrayed by every institution that was supposed to protect us — the US Olympic Committee, USA Gymnastics (the federation, no), the FBI and the Department of Justice.”
“It is clear that the only path to justice and healing is the legal process,” she added.
In total, legal damages arising from Nassar’s actions and their consequences have totaled more than a billion dollars.
Those payments include a $500 million settlement between the state of Michigan and hundreds of victims in 2018, as well as a $380 million settlement with athletes from USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
In all, more than 330 women have accused Nassar of sexually abusing them. He is serving a 175-year sentence following multiple convictions for sexual assault and child pornography.
Last year, Nassar was stabbed by another inmate in a Florida prison, only escaping with his life after prison officers gave him medical attention.
Photo: Profimedia Images
Follow us on Google News
Tags: Victims USA Gymnastics Team Doctor Larry Nassars Sexual Abuse Compensation
-
