Tag Archives: Larry Nassar

Sports news, State news

Sexual abuse story now heads for Texas

Larry Nassar, the serial sexual assailant, has settled into his new “home,” which happens to be a Michigan prison, where he will spend the rest of his miserable life.

The story of this monster is still unfolding, in Texas.

Nassar — a former physician — was sentenced to 175 years in prison after he was convicted of sexual assault of young women and girls while they were under his medical care at Michigan State University. His victims were young gymnasts, some of whom were Olympic champions.

The Texas connection? Several of the women contend that they were abused while they trained under the eyes of Bela and Martha Karolyi at their famed “ranch” near Houston.

Gov. Greg Abbott has deployed the Texas Rangers — the elite investigative arm of the Department of Public Safety — to look into the allegations of abuse that have been leveled against the Karolyis.

The Texas Tribune reports: “The public statements made by athletes who previously trained at the Karolyi Ranch are gut-wrenching,” Abbott said in a statement Tuesday. “Those athletes, as well as all Texans, deserve to know that no stone is left unturned to ensure that the allegations are thoroughly vetted and the perpetrators and enablers of any such misconduct are brought to justice. The people of Texas demand, and the victims deserve, nothing less.”

Indeed.

I have supreme confidence that the Texas Rangers will get to the truth, whatever it is and whomever it involves.

Nassar’s conviction and sentence already have brought down members of the U.S. gymnastics association, as well as the Michigan State president and athletic director.

I am not going to bet against the Rangers finding more culprits lurking right here, in Texas.

national news, Sports news

A big domino falls in Nassar sex scandal … more to come?

Lou Anna Simon has quit her day job. It wasn’t just any job, either.

She was president of Michigan State University, the school that employed a doctor who this week was sentenced to as many as 175 years in prison for sexually abusing young female athletes.

Larry Nassar is now heading for prison for the rest of his life. He heard from scores of his victims during the sentencing phase of his trial. He said he is sorry, but the judge, Rosemarie Aquilini, didn’t believe him, declaring it was her “honor and privilege” to hand out the maximum sentence.

Then there’s the responsibility for the long-standing scandal that has rocked the sporting world far beyond the East Lansing, Mich., university.

Simon quit because this despicable conduct happened on her watch.

The question now must be asked: Did others know of this conduct but failed to act?

This hideous scandal does bring to my mind another one at another school, involving individuals charged with caring for youngsters. Do the names of Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno ring a bell?

Sandusky served as an assistant football coach at Penn State University. Then he was convicted of sexually abusing boys. Meanwhile, the legendary head coach — aka “Jo Pa” — got caught up in the scandal by allegedly looking the other way while he knew of the abuse that was occurring.

Penn State fired Paterno, who later died of cancer. Sandusky is serving a lengthy prison sentence.

We are learning from the Nassar scandal — as well as from the Sandusky scandal — that these events don’t occur in a vacuum. The men who do these things so very often do so with the implied — if not the outright — endorsement of their employers.

The implication surfaces when those in charge do nothing to stop this kind of hideous behavior as it is occurring.

Therefore, I am betting that Larry Nassar’s downfall will bring others with him.

national news, Sports news

‘I have just signed your death warrant’

Americans from coast to coast have witnessed an amazing display of courage and grit. The demonstration came from dozens of young women who stood before a man who violated them and offered their views of the monster and his monstrous behavior.

Larry Nassar, the former team doctor for young American gymnasts, will quite likely now spend the rest of his life behind prison walls. A Michigan judge, Rosemarie Aquilina, handed down a sentence of 40 to 175 years that Nassar will serve.

She declared it her “honor and privilege” to assign the sentence. It was to Nassar’s eternal shame that he took it and now he heads for the next phase of a miserable life. The judge declared that she had “just signed your death warrant.”

And to think that Nassar complained to the judge that hearing the women’s testimony was too “hard” on him emotionally. To her great credit, Judge Aquilina would have none of it.

The rest of the nation is proud of the young athletes who were abused by Nassar while he was on the staff at Michigan State University. Some of those women were members of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. Moreover, those young athletes had become household names for their athletic, gold-medal-winning prowess.

Now they are made even more notable for their guts in facing down the man who preyed on them when they were children.

This case has drawn much-needed and most-appropriate attention to the broader issue of sexual abuse committed against women by men in powerful positions.

The women who stood on that courtroom floor to tell Nassar what he needed to hear — that he is a despicable monster who never should walk free again — emerged as the latest entrants to a symbolic hall of heroes.

We should hold them up as profound role models … and pray for their emotional recovery from the torment they endured.