'Army of survivors' make voices heard on second day of Larry Nassar sentencing

LANSING - The "army of survivors" who say Larry Nassar sexually assaulted them continued to make their voices heard and names known Wednesday during the sentencing hearing for the disgraced former doctor. 

Tiffany Thomas-Lopez was the second woman to speak on Wednesday. She was a Michigan State University softball player from 1998 to 2001. In late 2016, she said she raised concerns about Nassar's treatments to three MSU trainers while she was a student.

"The army you choose in the late ’90s to silence me, to dismiss me and my attempt at speaking the truth will not prevail over the army you created when violating us," Thomas-Lopez said to Nassar. "We seek justice, we deserve justice, and we will have it."

Wednesday was the second of a four-day sentencing hearing for 54-year-old Nassar, who worked at MSU and with USA Gymnastics for two decades. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges in November. As part of the plea agreement, all 125 women and girls who reported abuse by Nassar to police were given the opportunity to speak at the sentencing.

On Wednesday morning, the Michigan Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted Nassar, said 101 women or girls are expected to speak before the hearing ends on Friday. Last week, it had expected 88. By Tuesday, the number was at 98.

More:

'We seek justice, we deserve justice': Over 100 women to confront Larry Nassar

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Recap: Day 2 of Larry Nassar sentencing

Attorney General Bill Schuette was in the courtroom Tuesday morning for some of the statements. After Wednesday's hearing, he told the State Journal that he met with some of the women and girls on Tuesday.

"Meeting with them it is a profile in courage. It truly is," he said. "I thank them for their bravery. I thank them for their courage."

He added that it's "stunning and remarkable" that 101 women and girls decided to give statements. 

Most of the women and girls who spoke during the first two days did so while being publicly identified. All were given the chance to speak anonymously, with the assembled media barred from reporting identifiable information. And on each of the first two days, a handful of women and girls who had planned to remain anonymous changed their minds. 

Carrie Hogan said she felt it's important for her to put a name behind her story.

Kayla Spicher said Nassar abused her "hundreds and hundreds" of times during medical appointments. She changed her mind and wanted to be identified publicly, she said, because no one should fear coming forward.

"We are not victims," Spicher said. "We are survivors."

Chelsea Williams would have been identified in court as Victim 118. She said she was "inspired by the courage" of the others who have spoken and been publicly identified and changed her mind.

"I am a survivor," she told the crowded courtroom.

Thomas-Lopez wasn't the only woman to refer to the more than 140 women and girls as an army. 

More:Woman who reported Nassar in 2014: 'It destroyed me but I lived'

On Monday, Amanda Thomashow made the decision to go public with her name, telling the State Journal that she won't let what happened to her define her.

Details of Thomashow's story, with the exception of her name, have been reported for more than a year. She's the woman who reported Nassar to MSU and police in 2014, prompting both criminal and Title IX investigations. 

She was the fourth woman to speak in court on Wednesday, about 15 minutes after Thomas-Lopez.

"Larry, the thing that you didn’t realize while you were sexually assaulting me and all of these young girls … is that you were also building an army of survivors," Thomashow said. "… You might have broken us, but from this rubble, we will rise."

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