LOCAL

MSU won't reopen 2014 inquiry that cleared Nassar

Lansing State Journal

A Michigan State student suspended for two years after being accused of sexual assault is suing the university for failing to provide due process.

EAST LANSING - Michigan State University won't reopen the 2014 Title IX investigation of Larry Nassar, in part, because the woman who made the complaint is suing the university.

MSU had reopened the investigation once already, in December after a wave of new sexual assault reports about Nassar. The university closed the investigation a week later when the woman didn't respond to emails from MSU.

Her attorney, Jim Graves, said those emails went to her spam folder and the university should have contacted him. He received a letter Wednesday, dated May 5, informing him of MSU's decision.

“I think it’s totally uncalled for on their part," Graves said. "That is just more of the same cover up and deception on part of the university and is inconsistent with their public statements.”

The letter, from the university's General Counsel's office, appears to contradict MSU's stance in December of last year. In one email that month to the woman, MSU Title IX investigator Liz Abdnour wrote that the woman "may contact (the Title IX office) at any time in the future" if she wanted to set up meeting or "initiate an investigation."

Graves did so on two occasions this month and provided the letters to the State Journal.

The letter Graves received Wednesday was signed by Brian Quinn, an MSU attorney in MSU's Office of the General Counsel

"In light of the current circumstances, including the pendency of (the) lawsuit against the University, it would not be appropriate to once again reopen MSU's investigation," Quinn wrote.

The woman filed her lawsuit in March; more than 90 women and girls are suing MSU and Nassar.

Jason Cody, an MSU spokesman, said MSU's letter to Graves explains the university's position and declined to comment further on MSU's decision. However, he did say that the university's position on the 2014 investigation does not run counter to comments that university President Lou Anna Simon made in a video posted online Wednesday.

In the nearly two-minute video, Simon addresses the separate sexual assault cases involving the former university doctor as well as a separate investigation into three MSU football players who have not been named by the university.

"The seriousness of the charges requires the most deliberative investigations possible," she said. Simon thanked the women who have come forward and said that she recognizes "the pain sexual violence causes."

The 2014 Title IX investigation cleared Nassar of any policy violations after he was accused of massaging a patient's breast and vaginal area, and cupping her buttocks with his hand.

The investigator determined that the woman likely misinterpreted what Nassar did because she didn’t understand the "nuanced difference" between an appropriate osteopathic medical procedure and sexual assault, according to university records.

In reaching that conclusion, the investigator relied on the opinions of four medical experts who all worked for MSU and had close ties to Nassar. One of those experts, Brooke Lemmen, was recommended by Nassar. Lemmen resigned earlier this year after MSU told her it was considering firing her because she removed confidential patient files from MSU in September at Nassar's request.

University emails the State Journal obtained through a public records request show that the final investigative report exists in at least two different versions, one sent to Nassar and one sent to the woman with information withheld from the conclusion section.

MSU has closed at least four Title IX investigations related to Nassar that were opened since September of last year. All four found policy violations, including one that determined he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl in 2000.

ContactMatt Mencarini at (517) 267-1347 or mmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter@MattMencarini.