LARRY NASSAR: UNPARALLELED COVER-UP AND ABUSE!
TO THE VICTIMS: We can only reiterate the words of the Judge in leaving your harm, anger, hurt, injury in that courtroom.
The names of those who ignored or covered-up LARRY NASSAR's crimes and abuse need to be revealed and prosecuted if possible.
Tragically, there are some ill-informed folks who still deny LARRY NASSAR's abuse, ignoring those who bravely stepped forward. PLEASE INFORM YOURSELVES OF YOUR IGNORANCE!
There are surely others still suffering in silence or those who couldn't afford the travel.
This is a tragedy of unparalleled proportions on young women, CHILDREN we can't even grasp.
PLEASE DON'T KILL HIM IN PRISON! LARRY NASSAR DESERVES TO SPEND EVERY DAY OF HIS SENTENCE. MAY HE LIVE LONG!
29 January 18 AM
In Larry Nassar's Case, a Single Voice Eventually Raised an Army
Juliet Macur, The New York Times
Macur writes: "Rachael Denhollander had the first word and the last one."
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Rachael Denhollander, the first former gymnast to go public with accusations of abuse by Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, was also the last of 156 people to speak at his sentencing hearing. (photo: Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
In Larry Nassar’s Case, a Single Voice Eventually Raised an Army
Rachael Denhollander had the first word and the last one.
A former gymnast who became a lawyer and a coach, Ms. Denhollander told The Indianapolis Star in 2016 that Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar had molested her as a child.
She had just read a report in The Star about U.S.A. Gymnastics’ mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations against coaches. But no one had yet spoken up about Dr. Nassar, who molested young athletes for about two decades while pretending the abuse was therapy.
The Star soon published an article about the doctor, based on reports from two former gymnasts. One remained anonymous. The other was Rachael Denhollander — front and center, all alone there.
In a Michigan courtroom Wednesday, before Dr. Nassar received a prison sentence of 40 to 175 years for multiple counts of criminal sexual misconduct, Ms. Denhollander, 33, spoke again. This time, she was not alone.
Over a seven-day sentencing hearing, 155 people had delivered victim impact statements to the court. Ms. Denhollander became the 156th, the final voice in a gathering of survivors who grew stronger by the day.
She spoke for 36 minutes. When she was done, she received a standing ovation from the gallery of the courtroom.
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who presided over the case, called Ms. Denhollander the “five-star general” for an army of abuse survivors.
“You made this happen,” Judge Aquilina said. “You are the bravest person I’ve ever had in my courtroom.”
Ms. Denhollander said her only choice was to stand up for what was right, “no matter what it cost me.”
Much of the hearing’s legacy will be a cautionary tale for anyone in power who finds it easier to look away than to confront a Dr. Nassar. It will be about negligence and the incalculable harm caused by institutions that seem to prize self-preservation above all.
But Ms. Denhollander’s appearance in court was ultimately a hopeful reminder about the power of a single person.
More than 160 women say Larry Nassar sexually abused them. Here are his accusers in their own words.
He was lauded as the must-see doctor who worked with America’s best gymnasts. Now Lawrence G. Nassar will spend the rest of his life in prison. Over seven days, women recounted his sexual abuse at a marathon sentencing hearing in Michigan.
She said she was a 15-year-old club gymnast when she started seeing Dr. Nassar at Michigan State, one of his employers, to treat a back injury in 2000. She stopped competing the following year.
“He penetrated me, he groped me, he fondled me,” she told the court. “And then he whispered questions about how it felt. He engaged in degrading and humiliating sex acts without my consent or permission.”
Later, she described the difficulty of learning to trust again — even the doctors in the delivery room where she had each of her three children. There was, she said, “a fear that hung over each birth” as memories of Dr. Nassar “cast a horrific shadow over what should have been an occasion of pure joy.”
Michigan State and U.S.A. Gymnastics, which made Dr. Nassar its longtime doctor for the national women’s team, were culpable in this case, too, Ms. Denhollander said.
Nassar Likely to Die in Prison After 150 Speak
Lawrence G. Nassar, the former team doctor for the American gymnastics team, was sentenced to 40 to 175 years for sexual abuse. More than 150 victims, many of whom are former gymnasts, spoke at the sentencing hearing.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Photo by Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters.Watch in Times Video »She mentioned that Dr. Nassar had used his phony medical treatments on her after four other women had complained about Dr. Nassar to employees in the M.S.U. athletic department.
When Ms. Denhollander addressed Dr. Nassar, she remained stoic. She recalled the time he brought his young daughter to the office just so she could hold her.
“You knew how much I loved children and you used your own daughter to manipulate me,” she said. “Every time I held my babies, I prayed to God you would leave your abuse in the exam room and not take it home to the little girl born with black hair just like her daddy.”
As soon as The Star’s article alerted her to other abuse that had been overlooked in her sport, fear and shame began to melt away. Ms. Denhollander knew she had to tell her story. By Wednesday, that army, including Olympic champions, had followed her.
For Victims of Nassar, She’s Judge and Therapist
After opening her courtroom to athletes, coaches and parents, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina has prompted dozens more to share their stories of sexual abuse by the former sports doctor Lawrence G. Nassar.
By SARAH STEIN KERR on January 23, 2018. Photo by Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal, via Associated Press. Watch in Times Video »Still, she expressed regret that she hadn’t saved others from Dr. Nassar. As a coach of young gymnasts Ms. Denhollander said she often worried that one of them would end up suffering, as she did, at his hands.
She learned that one of her gymnasts, a 7-year-old, had been referred to Dr. Nassar, but assumed that he would not harm a child so young. She still wonders what happened during that exam.
The family soon moved away, Ms. Denhollander said, and “I don’t know yet if that little girl walked out the same that she walked in.”
There is still reason for worry, she said, pointing out that there had to be undetected predators like Dr. Nassar, still committing abuse.
When she addressed the issue of Dr. Nassar’s sentence, she repeated a phrase that should resonate: “How much is a little girl worth?”
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