“Nassar left scars on my psyche that may never go away”
Lawrence Gerard Nassar is a former USA Gymnastics national team doctor and osteopathic physician at Michigan State University, and convicted sex offender.
Nassar’s cumulative sexual assault crimes were the basis of the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal, in which he was accused, beginning in 2015, of assaulting at least 250 young women and girls, dating back to 1992.
His victims included numerous Olympic and United States women’s national gymnastics team gymnasts,and he has admitted to 10 of those accusations.
Carrie Hogan, a former gymnast, asked the court to hand down the maximum sentence for Nassar,
“I trusted this man, I trusted that he had every intention to heal me, and give me some relief to the excruciating pain I was experiencing. I had no idea that I was being molested. He was so incredibly kind and friendly to me. He really made me feel like he cared about my well-being, when all he really cared about was using me to fulfill his own sick desires. I am so ashamed that I was so blinded to this disgusting game. … But for now I can be at peace knowing that you will never hurt another little girl as long as you live.”
Aly Raisman, a gold medalist, testified that Nassar was “so sick.”
“You do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force and you are nothing. The tables have turned, Larry. We are here, we have our voices and we are not going anywhere.”Raisman went on to say, “You are so sick, I can’t even begin to comprehend how angry I feel when I think of you. You lied to me and manipulated me to think that when you treated me you closed your eyes because you had been working hard, when you were really touching me, an innocent child, to pleasure yourself.”
Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and was sentenced to 40 years to 175 years in prison.
Nassar was also sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges to which he’s admitted. He was a staff of Michigan University for over 20 years and the University agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits filed by 332 alleged victims of him.
The hundreds of survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse were given the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2018 ESPYS.
Many of the survivors detailed their respective accounts of abuse in a video that played before the award presentation.
Actress Jennifer Garner presented the award and said that while the survivors’ story is difficult, it is one that the world “has to hear.”
The women, known collectively as “sister survivors,” who spoke out against Nassar were honored for their “strength and resolve” for bringing “the darkness of sexual abuse into the light.”
The sexual abuse of hundreds of female athletes was put to a stop when a group of brave women came forward to expose it.
“To all the survivors out there, don’t let anyone rewrite your story, We may suffer alone, but we survive together.“
-Aly Raisman-
Special thanks to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.
Tavinya k.
scarlet 