Nessel closes MSU Nassar investigation, says long-withheld documents had no new information

Survivors of former Olympic and Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar’s decades-long sexual abuse have waited for thousands of documents from the university to be given to investigators at the Michigan State Attorney General’s Office for more than six years. 

Now with the documents in-hand, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told media Wednesday that despite MSU’s fight to not turn the information over, her office gleaned nothing pertaining to the investigation. That resulted in her office’s decision to end the investigation.

Survivors and parents banded together at MSU Board of Trustees meetings over the years to petition the university to release around 6,000 documents upon which the school claimed attorney-client privilege. Nessel said Wednesday that MSU was in the wrong for claiming privilege and the school’s decisions have caused compounding trauma for hundreds of survivors who believed the documents would shine a light on how the abuse was able to persist for so long.

Michigan State University to release thousands of Nassar documents, Nessel reopens investigation

“To say that I am disappointed at this outcome is really an understatement,” Nessel said. “While we begin each investigation in pursuit of the truth and facts first and foremost, and take criminal or civil charges as a secondary consideration, it is my belief that by withholding the remaining 6,000 documents, MSU unnecessarily prolonged that hope that the questions survivors had would be answered and denied them closure that they were entitled to many years ago.”

Though MSU respects the thorough efforts of investigators, recognizing the impact the investigation has had on survivors, there university has been in fiull compliance with the Attorney General’s Office, MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant said in a statement on behalf of the university.

“Since 2016, the university has taken significant steps to improve campus safety and culture through robust prevention, support, and response efforts. We are working to become a more accountable organization each day, guided by an unwavering commitment to providing a safe campus and equitable environment for all,” MSU’s statement reads. “We echo the attorney general’s comments in acknowledging the role survivors have made in advocating for change and improvements surrounding assault and abuse in our state and globally.”

Nassar was a respected team doctor for USA Gymnastics for nearly two decades and a doctor at MSU, where athletes and other patients reported that they felt lucky to be seen by him as he was the doctor for star gymnasts like Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols.

Nassar was sentenced across three courts from 2017 to 2018 to effectively three life sentences on child pornography charges, as well as several charges of criminal sexual conduct with minors.

During the 2018 sentencing in a Lansing court, where more than 150 women and girls relayed their stories of abuse, many of them cited that Nassar was a friend and trusted doctor that abused his power as a physician to sexually assault them under the guise of medical care.

”Sadly, there simply is no fulfilling answer to the question of how Nassar was able to perpetuate his abuse on so many for so long without MSU or anyone else putting a stop to it,” Nessel said. “To say that I’m disappointed by this outcome is really an understatement.”

Shortly after the January 2018 sentencing, then-Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that the office had opened an investigation into who knew about Nassar’s abuse within Michigan State University and when. 

The public became aware of reports of abuse in 2016, after The Indianapolis Star published public accusations against Nassar.

The Michigan Attorney General’s investigation resulted in three MSU employees facing criminal charges.The university president at the time, Lou Anna K. Simon, was charged with lying to investigators, but her case was dismissed.

In the attorney general’s case against Nassar’s boss at MSU, former College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel faced, his own sexual assault allegations. Former female students testified during the case that Strampel made it clear that he was the gatekeeper to their path to becoming physicians and if they didn’t submit to his sexual advances, he’d destroy their careers.

Strampel was not convicted of criminal sexual conduct, but was sentenced to a year in jail on charges of misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty after prosecutors argued that Strampel did not oversee and cleared Nassar to continue seeing patients unsupervised after a young woman accused Nassar of sexually assaulting her under the guise of medical treatment in 2014.

Many survivors who have come forward with their stories of abuse by Nassar said they told trusted adults in their lives, athletic trainers and coaches, only to be ignored. In the case of athletes who told former MSU gymnastics coach Kathie Klages, they were threatened with consequences if they told anyone else.

Klages was convicted of lying to investigators and therefore impeding the investigation into MSU, but that was thrown out by the Michigan Court of Appeals. The court did note that the dismissal did not pertain to whether Klages did or did not lie to investigators after public accusations came to light in 2016, but rather that any testimony Klages offered did not hurt or help the investigation.

Two women testified in Klages’ case that in 1997 when the pair were young teens they both were sexually assaulted by Nassar and told trusted adults. One of the women, Larissa Boyce, testified in court in November 2018 that Klages held up a piece of paper in front of her and cautioned her that there would be serious consequences if Boyce made a report. 

“I am standing here representing my 16-year-old self who was silenced and humiliated 23 years ago and, unfortunately, all of the hundreds of girls that were abused after me,” Boyce said in 2018, according to The Associated Press.

At the end of 2023, the MSU board voted unanimously to turn over documents to the attorney general’s office.

Nessel spent much of the call with members of the media noting some of the changes in state law that have occurred due to the relentless efforts from the “sister survivors” to ensure that abuse like Nassar’s cannot happen again.

“You changed how survivors are treated when they come forward, and you changed our culture to one that leads with believing survivors,” Nessel said.