USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal And Larry Nassar being confronted by victims at sentencing hearing's second day
More sexual-assault victims are scheduled to speak today at the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar, a former doctor who worked with Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and other institutions.
Nassar will be sentenced this week on seven first degree criminal sexual abuse charges for touching his patients' genital areas under the guise of medical treatment.
However, nearly 150 women have accused Nassar of abuse, and almost 100 are scheduled to speak at the sentencing hearing, which began Tuesday in Ingham County Circuit Court.
More than two dozen women addressed Nassar and Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, or had their victim statements read Tuesday.
Some spoke amid tears; others were coldly angry about their treatment by Nassar and the impact on their lives.
"These are lifelong traumas that have changed the way I walk in the world," said Amanda Cormier, who was a Nassar patient when she was 15 to 17 years old.
Warning: The contents of this video may be disturbing to some viewers.
The Ingham County case against Nassar originally involves allegations from seven women who said they were abused by Nassar at MSU's sports-medicine clinic and at his home in Holt. Six of those women are former patients, and the seventh woman was a family friend who alleged she was abused while visiting the doctor's Holt home between 1998 and 2004.
Nassar worked with USA Gymnastics as the team doctor and was considered a well-respected doctor in the sport, accompanying gymnasts to four Olympic games. He stopped working with USA Gymnastics in 2015 and was fired by MSU in September 2016 after two former patients publicly accused him of sexual abuse.
Nassar is already facing 60 years in prison on federal charges after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to possessing child pornography, receipt of child pornography and obstruction of justice for trying to destroy evidence last year as police closed in.
Warning: The contents of this video may be disturbing to some viewers.
Nassar will also be sentenced on three more first degree criminal sexual abuse charges in Eaton County Circuit Court 10 a.m. Jan. 31 related to assaults that occurred at Twistars, a gymnastics facility in Dimondale, Mich.
Nassar and the institutions he worked with are co-defendants in multiple lawsuits by at least 140 women and girls who say the institutions ignored or failed to effectively investigate sexual assault complaints against Nassar.
MSU attorneys filed a motion Friday to dismiss the university as a co-defendant in Nassar lawsuits, as well as three individuals named as co-defendants: Kathie Klages, former MSU gymnastics coach; Dr. Jeffrey Kovan, former head of MSU's sports-medicine clinic, and Dr. William Strampel, former dead of the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Continue following MLive for updates on Nassar's Ingham County sentencing this week.
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