Michigan AG Schuette to investigate Michigan State University in Larry Nassar case
(WJBK) - FOX 2 News has learned that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has decided to launch an investigation into Michigan State University and how it handled the Dr. Larry Nassar sexual abuse case.
The investigation will focus on who knew what and when at MSU, according to a source. The announcement is expected to be made soon, as work continues in the state attorney general's office to lay the foundation for the announcement. No date has been set for an official statement yet.
Nassar will be sentenced in state court for sexual assault charges he pleaded guilty to, later this January for molesting gymnasts.
All told there are at least 125 reported victims he assaulted over the years. He was fired by Michigan State in 2016 but had been seeing patients for more than a year after a sexual assault allegation surfaced in 2014.
Nassar, 54, worked at Michigan State University and at USA Gymnastics, the Indianapolis-based group that trains Olympians. Nassar admitted to molesting three girls at Twistars Gymnastics Club, near Lansing with one victim under 13 years old. The others were teens.
Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts last week in a similar case in Ingham County where he saw gymnasts at his Michigan State University clinic.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography last December. Federal prosecutors say he had more than 37,000 images of child porn on electronic devices.
Olympians Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Gabby Douglas say they were victims when Nassar worked for USA Gymnastics and accompanied them at workouts or international events.
Nassar is a "monster" who "left scars on my psyche that may never go away," Maroney said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Janet Neff.
In a court filing, defense lawyers said Nassar "deeply regrets the pain that he has caused the community." The child pornography was discovered last year when Nassar was being investigated for assault.
Aside from the criminal cases, more than 100 women and girls are suing Nassar. Michigan State and USA Gymnastics are defendants in many of the lawsuits.
Schuette said in Feb. 2017 that Nassar was "a monster."
"I think that's outrageous," Schuette said. "And what he did under this disguise, this guise this hoax of providing medical treatment to young women who had injuries and what he did, shocks the conscience."