Larry Nassar was the USA Gymnastics national team doctor who abused his position and has now been convicted of child molestation and a number of other counts. His job as a doctor of osteopathic medicine involved performing osteopathic manipulation where a doctor makes use of his hands to perform a number of techniques, including stretching and gently pushing to move a patient’s muscle and joints.
In crossing those professional lines and going as far as sexually assaulting patients, he ignited the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal that led to a lot of repercussions for the gymnastics community.
His Life Before He Was Exposed
Larry Nassar was born in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on the 16th of August 1963. As details of his upbringing are hard to come by, it has been difficult to tell the ethnic group he belongs to. However, there have been speculations suggesting that the man is of Arab heritage. This is because of his last name (Nassar) which is listed as an Arabic name. From what we learned, the name means Victory, Protector, or Helper.
Nassar went to Farmington High School where he worked as a student athletic trainer for the women’s gymnastics team. He graduated in 1981 and started studying at the University of Michigan where he had applied to study Kinesiology. At the university, he worked with the track and field teams and graduated in 1985.
In 1986, following his graduation from the University of Michigan, he started working with the USA Gymnastics national team as an athletic trainer who was part of the medical staff. He would go on in 1993 to get an osteopathic medical degree from Michigan State University to add to his qualifications. He was therefore appointed as the national medical coordinator for USA gymnastics in 1996.
In 1997, Larry Nassar added being a team physician and assistant professor at his immediate former university to his work history. He ran for the Holt School Board in 2016 after allegations of his sex crimes were already out and earned 21% of the votes in the election.
About 250 Girls Accused Larry Nassar Of Sexual Assault
Larry Nassar was accused of sexual assault and molestation of about 250 girls and one young man. His list of accusers includes well-known Olympic gymnasts and his victims dated as far back as 1992. He eventually admitted that he is guilty to at least ten of the accusations but had initially been adamant in his insistence that he had been performing legitimate medical procedures. The lead prosecutor on Larry Nassar’s case, Angela Povilaitis, said during his sentencing trial that he had penetrated the vaginas and anuses of his patients with his bare hands.
Seven of the women who have spoken up about his assault said that Larry had penetrated their vaginas with his fingers. Five of the women in question had been underage at the time of these happenings and three of them had also accused Larry Nassar of touching their breasts and claimed that his arousal had been visible at least on one occasion during treatment.
On the 22nd of November 2016, Larry Nassar pleaded guilty to ten of the counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. This was in connection with ten victims across two Michigan counties and he abused all but one of these particular victims during medical examinations. His guilty plea showed his admittance of the crime he committed – Larry used his position as a doctor to coerce women to submit to penetration. Every single victim in the Michigan cases had been under 16 years old and three of them had been under 13 years of age.
How He’s Paying For His Crimes
Mr. Nassar had been fired from his position at Michigan State University in September 2016 and USA Gymnastics claimed to have let him go in 2015. In January 2018, he was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in a Michigan prison following his guilty plea to seven counts of sexual assault. In February 2018, he was again sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in prison after his guilty plea to an additional three counts.
Prior to that, Larry also had a separate federal case on child pornography, where investigators reported that he had at least 37,000 videos and images of child pornography. For this, in July 2017, he was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty.
As it has emerged, Larry is currently at the United States Penitentiary in Coleman, Florida, where he is serving the Federal half of his sentence. It is expected that he would be done with this sometime in March 2069. Thereafter, he will be transferred to a Michigan state prison to continue paying for his crimes. Larry sought a new sentencing hearing in July 2018 but his request was denied.
What We Know About His Prison Assault
It has emerged that Nassar is having a hard time in prison. About half-a-year, after he began serving his federal sentence, it circulated that he was assaulted by inmates.
It was in February 2018 that he was transferred to the United States Penitentiary located in Tucson, Arizona. He would later be moved from the penitentiary after an investigation determined that he wouldn’t be safe there. This is so because Larry Nassar was reportedly assaulted as soon as he was released to the general population at the penitentiary.
While the reason he was assaulted remains unknown, it has speculated that it was because of his crimes. Larry was eventually transferred to another penitentiary, Coleman in Florida.
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Larry’s Wife and Kids Have Abandoned Him
Larry Nassar got married on the 19th of October 1996 to Stephanie Lynn Anderson. The couple has two daughters and a son together. Reports have it that Larry and Stephanie started having issues that led to their separation after he was first arrested on suspicion of sex crimes.
Their long-lasting marriage came to a decisive end in July 2017 when Stephanie Nassar was granted a divorce from her husband whom she had already been estranged from. She gained full custody of all their children – Katelyn, Caroline, and Ryan Nassar.
The family he has around him at the moment is the one he hails from. Larry Nassar’s parents are Fred Nassar who died in 2000 and Mary Nassar. His older brother Mike had been an athletic trainer at North Farmington High School and is said to be the one who recommended Larry for his initial work as a student athletic trainer.
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