NEWS

MSU doctor resigned after removing Nassar patient files

Matt Mencarini
Lansing State Journal
MSU's Beaumont Tower on campus in East Lansing.

EAST LANSING - An MSU doctor resigned a month after she learned the university was "seriously considering" terminating her employment based on her knowledge of sexual assault allegations against Larry Nassar and her conduct after allegations were made public.

Dr. Brooke Lemmen removed "several boxes of confidential treatment records" from Michigan State University's Sports Medicine Clinic at Nassar's request, according to documents in her personnel file that the Lansing State Journal obtained Friday through the Freedom of Information Act. She also didn't tell the university in July 2015 that Nassar had told her that USA Gymnastics was investigating him, according to the documents.

William Strampel, dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, told Lemmen in a Dec. 12 letter that her lack of disclosure regarding the USA Gymnastics investigation was "troubling" because she was one of the four medical experts MSU relied on during a 2014 internal Title IX investigation that cleared Nassar of sexual assault allegations.

Related:
-MSU makes medical policy changes related to Nassar allegations
-At MSU: Assault, harassment and secrecy 
-Former MSU coach, 2 current doctors added to Nassar lawsuit

Lemmen's attorney, Aaron Kemp, told the State Journal on Saturday, that in 2014 and 2015 his client wasn't informed of sexual assault allegations or allegations of a sexual nature, but that patients were uncomfortable with Nassar's treatments. A message was left seeking comment from Kemp on Friday and he called the State Journal on Saturday.

In a December letter responding to Strampel, Kemp wrote that his client removed two boxes of records at Nassar's request, but never gave them to Nassar. He added that she returned them to the university and "should be commended for not taking the risk of having these files fall into Dr. Nassar's hands once she was asked to remove them by Dr. Nassar."

Kemp told the State Journal that Lemmen removed the files Sept. 12 and called the university the next day. After giving the files back to MSU, Lemmen told the university about more patient files Nassar kept at Twistars gymnastics club, Kemp said.

In his December letter to Strampel, Kemp told him that Lemmen was "far from the only individual associated with MSU" who knew about the 2015 USA Gymnastics investigation, which he called a review, and that she was not required to report her knowledge of it to the university.

Lemmen, who went to medical school at MSU and started working in the Sports Medicine Clinic in 2010, is at least the second MSU employee to leave the university after their supervisors raised concerns about their conduct related to Nassar, who the university fired on Sept. 20.

In February, the university suspended Kathie Klages, who had served as the women's gymnastics coach for 27 years. Klages retired the day after her suspension and amid allegations that in the late 1990s she discouraged two teenage girls from reporting concerns about Nassar.

Nassar, 53, of Holt, faces 28 criminal charges and lawsuits from more than 80 women or girls who say in court documents that he sexually assaulted them during medical appointments. He is part of a national scandal over how USA Gymnastics dealt with sexual abuse complaints against coaches and others. Although employed by MSU, his contract called for him to spend 70% of his time doing "outreach/public services." That included USA Gymnastics, where Nassar served as trainer for Olympic gymnasts, as well as sports organizations in mid-Michigan.

MSU spokesman Jason Cody didn't return a message seeking comment.

'Very good friends'

In April 2014 a then recent MSU graduate reported to the university and its police department that Nassar had sexually assaulted her a month earlier at his campus office during an appointment to treat hip pain.

The woman told the university that Nassar cupped her buttocks, massaged her breast and vaginal area, and was "extremely close" to inserting a finger into her vagina, according to university records.

Nassar didn't dispute what the woman said he did, but said it was part of a legitimate medical procedure. The university then turned to four medical experts, including Lemmen, to determine if that was true.

All four had close ties to MSU and Nassar.

Related:
- Full coverage: Larry Nassar
- Timeline of Nassar’s decades-long career and the allegations against him

Lemmen told the university's Title IX investigator that she and Nassar were "very good friends" and that she had studied under him, according to university records.

After hearing what the woman said Nassar did, Lemmen said she was completely convinced Nassar wasn't touching the woman sexually, according to university records. Lemmen reached this opinion, she told the investigator, after many years of observing Nassar's treatment styles and techniques.

Since September, more than 80 women or girls have told police that Nassar sexually assaulted them during medical appointments, many saying it happened decades ago and on MSU's campus. Nassar is facing 22 sexual assault charges directly related to his role as a doctor.

According to a copy of the university's Title IX investigation from 2014, which the Lansing State Journal obtained last year, the university also interviewed Dr. Lisa DeStefano, Dr. Jennifer Gilmore and Destiny Teachnor-Hauk, who works as a certified athletic trainer at MSU.

DeStefano was the chair of the Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Department in the College of Osteopathic Medicine. She had known Nassar since 1988, they were classmates together and she had taught with him, according to university documents.

Gilmore had known Nassar since 1995. He was just ahead of her in residency, and when she was a sports medicine fellow he was her attending physician, according to university records.

Teachnor-Hauk had worked with Nassar for 17 years and seen him perform skin-on-skin manipulative medicine techniques in the vaginal area hundreds of times, according to university documents. She told the university investigator in 2014 that in her entire time working with Nassar she had never had a complaint about Nassar and had no concern for him doing something inappropriate.

Teachnor-Hauk is now the staff athletic trainer for MSU's women's gymnastics and rowing teams. Nassar had been the team doctor for those teams before the university fired him.

Strampel, the dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, suggested in his December letter to Lemmen that the university might have acted in 2015 had she come forward with her knowledge of the USA Gymnastics investigation.

"Had the University known of additional allegations, it could have taken steps to review Dr. Nassar's volunteer and clinical activities in 2015," Strampel wrote in the letter.

MSU's 2014 Title IX investigation cleared Nassar of any violation of university policy. Afterward, Stampel and Nassar reached an agreement on new protocols Nassar was to required abide by. That agreement, as outlined in an email, didn't include a followup mechanism to ensure Nassar was compliant.

And he wasn't, which was one of the reasons given when the university fired him in September.

Kemp, Lemmen's attorney, wrote Strampel in December that this client wasn't required to tell the university she had knowledge about USA Gymnastics' concerns, and that she "naturally assumed if this review was actually was an investigation regarding specific allegations of sexual misconduct, USA Gymnastics would have contacted MSU and advised them accordingly."

This week, USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny resigned amid growing outrage over how the organization handled sexual abuse complaints against coaches and others.

A resignation letter

Lemmen submitted her resignation letter to Strampel on Jan. 18.

In her letter, she thanked him for his "time, effort and encouragement" over the years and said that she was looking forward to the next phase of her medical career after "an immensely rewarding experience" at MSU.

Less than a month earlier, Strampel had told her that he was "seriously considering termination of (her) fixed term appointment" due to the lack of disclosure, and the fact that she removed patient files at Nassar's request. A comment she made about the university's attorneys conducting the internal investigation also made one staff member feel "pressured not to fully cooperate in the investigation," according to Strampel's letter.

Strampel said in the letter that during the university's internal investigation, Lemmen was keeping track of how long MSU attorneys were interviewing staff members and at one point told the staff, "Remember, they (MSU's Office of the General Counsel) are not your friend."

Kemp, in his letter to Strampel, said Lemmen "categorically denies" that she kept track of how long attorneys met with staff members. He added that she did remind staff that the university attorneys they were meeting with were not their attorneys, but the university's attorneys who made them sign agreements granting MSU attorney-client privilege and the sole discretion to waive that privilege.

The agreement states that with the exception of the employee's attorney, they will not "disclose the substance of (their) conversation with (university attorneys) to third parties in order to keep the conversation privileged."

Strampel said that Lemmen removed the patient files without authorization, but later returned them to the university before giving them to Nassar. Even though she returned the records, Strampel told her removing them was "a serious breach of protocol and good judgment."

Kemp, in his letter to Strampel, said the files Nassar asked his client to remove had been in Nassar's home years before but were moved to the university after flooding. As a result, Kemp said the files "presumably" did not involve MSU students or athletes because they were "organized primarily by gymnastics competitions and not patient names."

Several attorneys suing MSU, Nassar and USA Gymnastics have said in lawsuits that some of their client's medical records, provided by MSU, were devoid of mentions of intravaginal procedures their clients said were performed, and in some cases the university could not provide medical records that were requested.

ContactMatt Mencarini at (517) 267-1347 or mmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter@MattMencarini. Contact him on Signal, a messaging app with end-to-end encryption, at 517-281-1939.