Larry Nassar: A timeline of the sexual abuse allegations against the former USA Gymnastics team doctor
Ex-doctor to the elite athletes of USA Gymnastics was convicted of sexual assault in 2017
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Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar was allegedly assaulted by another inmate in the high-security federal prison where he is currently serving a decades-long sentence for convictions that arose from the 2016 USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed to The Independent that an inmate was attacked on Sunday, 9 June and received life-saving measures but declined to provide details about the inmates involved or the inmates’ medical status “for privacy, safety and security reasons.”
Two sources close to the situation claimed Nassar was stabbed multiple times in the back and chest, The Associated Press first reported.
Nassar is currently serving a 40 to 175-year prison sentence at the United States Penitentiary Coleman II in Florida on seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and possession of child pornography.
Nassar was at the center of the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal when it was revealed that for at least 14 years of his career as the team doctor and an osteopathic physician at Michigan State University, he sexually abused children and young adult athletes.
Here’s a timeline of the case against Larry Nassar.
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1986 - Nassar joins the USA Gymnastics national team medical staff as an athletic trainer.
2014 - Amanda Thomashow, a graduate of Michigan State University (MSU) files a Title IX complaint against Nassar. She alleges that Nassar touched her inappropriately during a medical examination, only for the institution’s inquiry to result in no charges and rule that his behaviour had been “medically appropriate”.
July 2015 - the FBI opens an investigation into Nassar after the USA Gymnastics president and CEO Stephen Penny reported allegations made by gymnast Maggie Nichols. Mr Penny provides the FBI’s Indianapolis field office with the names of three victims willing to be interviewed.
September 2015 - FBI interviews the first and only witness but does not document its findings in a report, eventually known as a “302”, until February 2017.
4 August 2016 - The Indianapolis Star publishes the first of a series of investigative reports into Nassar’s conduct.
30 August 2016 - MSU relieves the doctor of his clinical and patient duties as it carries out a new investigation.
12 September 2016 - The Indianapolis Star publishes another article, this time featuring disclosures from two ex-gymnasts who alleged that Nassar had sexually abused them as children in the 1990s and early 2000s. One, Rachael Denhollander, was named in the article and had filed a complaint against Nassar with the Michigan police. The second accuser was later revealed to be Jamie Dantzscher, a member of the US Olympics team for Sydney 2000, who had launched a civil lawsuit against him in California.
20 September 2016 - Nassar is fired from MSU.
22 November 2016 - Nassar is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ingham County, Michigan, including one with a person under 13. He pled not guilty and was freed on a $1m bond but the state’s attorney general said the matter was “just the tip of the iceberg”, with police revealing that 50 victims had made sexual abuse claims against him.
16 December 2016 - Nassar is arrested and indicted on federal child pornography charges. The indictment says he was in possession of “thousands” of indecent images of children collected between 2003 and 2016.
10 January 2017 - Eighteen victims file a federal lawsuit against Nassar, MSU, USA Gymnastics and the Twistars USA Gymnastics Club, alleging sexual assault, battery, molestation and harassment between 1996 and 2016. Nassar loses his medical licence.
19 February 2017 - Three ex-gymnasts - Dantzscher, Jeanette Antolin and Jessica Howard - discuss experiences with Nassar in an interview with 60 Minutes on CBS.
11 July 2017 - Nassar pleads guilty to three child pornography charges.
22 November 2017 - Nassar pleads guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct as part of a plea deal in exchange for prosecutors dropping eight other charges against him and not adding charges for other sexual assault incidents that had subsequently emerged.
7 December 2017 - Nassar sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.
16 January 2018 - Seven-day hearing begins in Ingham County at which 156 women give powerful victim-impact statements.
22 January 2018 - Entire board of USA Gymnastics steps down under pressure from the US Olympic Committee.
24 January 2018 - Ingham County hearing ends with Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentencing Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison and telling him: “I just signed your death warrant.” On the same day, Lou Anna K Simon steps down as president of MSU, apologising to the victims in her resignation letter and reflecting on the “evil” of Nassar.
31 January 2018 - Eaton County hearing begins, also in Michigan, where Nassar pleads guilty to three charges of criminal sexual conduct - two of the charges relating to girls between the ages of 13 and 15 and one against a girl younger than 13. Another 60 women come forward to give victim-impact statements, with the total of accusers now at 265.
5 February 2018 - Nassar sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison, to be served concurrently with Ingham County sentence but after the child pornography sentence.
16 March 2018 - MSU reaches $500m settlement with 332 of Nassar’s victims.
22 August 2018 - Nassar’s appeal of his 60-year sentence on child pornography charges is rejected by a three-judge panel of the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
14 July 2021- US Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz issues a scathing report accusing the FBI of botching the investigation six years earlier and therein allowing the abuse to continue unchecked.
15 September 2021- Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Ms Nicholes testify about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Nassar to the US Senate Judiciary Committee. In her statement, Biles blames a system that “enabled and perpetrated his abuse.”
22 April 2022 - Thirteen women who claim they were sexually assaulted by Nassar file a lawsuit seeking $130m from the FBI for failing to act quickly on accusations, allowing Nassar to assault more young athletes.
17 June 2022 - Michigan Supreme Court rejects Nassar’s final appeal.
10 July 2023 - Nassar is stabbed multiple times in federal prison in Florida, the Associated Press reported. He was described as being in stable condition.