NEWS

Nassar sexually assaulted 15-year-old, MSU Title IX report finds

Finding is first to corroborate allegations made by one of more than 80 women or girls who have accused the fired doctor

Matt Mencarini

Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING – An MSU official has determined that former MSU doctor Larry Nassar sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl during medical appointments 17 years ago, documents obtained by the State Journal show.

The conclusion, drawn by a university Title IX investigator, is the first ruling — administrative, criminal or civil — that has agreed with any of the at least 80 women or girls who have sued Michigan State University and Nassar over allegations of sexual assault.

The determination by the investigator comes more than 2 1/2 years after another Title IX investigation by MSU involving similar allegations against Nassar cleared the longtime university doctor. Rachael Denhollander's Title IX investigation, opened in September, was the second the university started in connection with Nassar.

She also is one of 10 women or girls whose sexual assault reports to police have led to criminal charges against Nassar.

Denhollander, who told the Indianapolis Star last year that Nassar sexually assaulted her, said she was grateful that MSU's Title IX report was thorough and accurate. She added that she knew when she came forward publicly in September that it would be an "uphill battle."

"It's been incredibly painful, to be honest," she said of the months since deciding to speak publicly and becoming one of three plaintiffs to use their own names in a lawsuit against MSU. "I think I will always regret that it had to be done this way, but there was something more important than what I wanted. And what was more important was that he was stopped, that the culture of abuse was challenged, and the women who were living in silence could come forward."

MSU spokesman Jason Cody said in an email that he could not comment, but that there are five additional ongoing Title IX investigations in connection with sexual assault allegations against Nassar. MSU fired Nassar in September.

There should be a criminal child endangerment investigation regarding how the 2014 investigation cleared Nassar, said attorney John Manly, who represents Denhollander and dozens of others suing MSU and Nassar. He said he has compared both investigations.

"It's time," he said. "To me, this is the watershed moment in this case. These families want justice. A civil lawsuit is great, but you shouldn't have to hire a civil attorney to get justice."

Manly said MSU police have done a great job with the criminal investigation of Nassar, but that it would be unfair to ask them to investigate the university's handling of the 2014 case, which the State Journal chronicled in December. He added that he doesn't think the university missed anything in 2014, but was trying to protect Nassar.

"If the university could figure it out in 2017, why couldn't they figure it out in 2014? And I think that's a very damning fact for them," Manly said.

Through his attorneys, Nassar has denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement last September they wrote: "Dr. Nassar has never denied that he used medical techniques involving vaginal penetration and in fact, he provided the police with detailed information about the techniques he used to treat athletes and patients for decades."

Denhollander met with MSU's Title IX investigator, Lin-Chi Wang, on two occasions in September and said that during several medical appointments at his MSU office in 2000, Nassar sexually assaulted her, including digital vaginal and anal penetration, massaging in the genital area and massaging her breast, according to the final Title IX investigative report.

Denhollander was 15 years old at the time.

She told Wang that Nassar was sexually aroused during at least one appointment, according to university records, and her mother said she saw Nassar sexually aroused during two appointments.

Wang interviewed Nassar on Sept. 8, according to her report, and found his "denial to be unpersuasive where there is corroborating evidence to support Claimant Denhollander's allegations."

Wang interviewed Denhollander's mother and two of her former physical therapists, who told Wang that in the early 2000s Denhollander and her mother asked them about the legitimacy of intra-vaginal treatments.

Nassar told Wang on Sept. 8 that he didn’t feel like he could return to clinical duties after the accusations against him by former patients. He said that he does not use gloves because he doesn’t go into his patient’s vaginas or rectal orifices, according to the Title IX report, and because he is feeling for response from the tissue. Nassar said patients had never asked him to wear gloves, according to the Title IX report.

All of the women or girls who said in court documents that Nassar sexually assaulted them said he wasn’t wearing gloves at the time.

Specific to Denholander, Nassar told the university investigator that he does treatment in the vaginal area, but he would not have penetrated her with his finger.

While Denhollander was the first woman to publicly say that Nassar sexually assaulted her, she wasn't the first woman or girl to raise concerns about Nassar's treatments to MSU officials or police.

Olds Hall at Michigan State University pictured on Monday, March 7, 2016. A fire destroyed the previous Engineering Building on March 5, 1916. The current Olds Hall was formally dedicated in 1917.

Two teenage girls raised concerns to now former MSU gymnastics coach Katie Klages in the late 1990s, according to court records, and Klages discouraged them from reporting Nassar. Klages retired last month, one day after being suspended by the MSU Athletic Department.

The Meridian Township Police Department opened a criminal investigation in 2004, but didn't send prosecutors a request for charges.

Tiffany Lopez, an MSU softball player from 1998 to 2001, raised concerns to several trainers and was told Nassar performed legitimate procedures, according to a lawsuit she filed late last year.

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

And in 2014, the woman who brought the allegations against Nassar, a recent MSU graduate at the time, told police and the university that Nassar sexually assaulted her during a medical appointment. MSU police investigated, but prosecutors declined to issue charges. The university's internal Title IX investigation cleared Nassar of any violations of the university's sexual assault and harassment policy, saying the woman didn’t understand the “nuanced difference” between sexual assault and an appropriate medical procedure.

Both the 2004 and 2014 police investigations have been reopened. The woman who made allegations in 2014 filed a lawsuit against Nassar and MSU on Monday.

"Nobody even listened," Denhollander said. "Nobody even listened to what these other women said in the past."

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.

Support our journalism

Become a Lansing State Journal subscriber today to support stories like this one. Get unlimited digital access for only $19.99 a year.