Up to 175 years in prison for disgraced doctor
DISGRACED for mer USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison on Wednesday after a week of raw emotional testimony by scores of women he sexually abused for years under the guise of medical treatment.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said as she handed down what amounts to a life sentence to the 54-year-old Nassar in a tense Lansing, Michigan, courtroom.
“You do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again,” the judge said as Nassar, dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit, stood expressionless before her flanked by two defence attorneys. “You’re a danger, you remain a danger,” Aquilina said. “Anywhere you walk destruction will occur to those most vulnerable.”
Minutes ahead of the sentencing, Nassar apologised in court to his victims, who included Olympic gold-medal winning gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney but also scores of female athletes at Michigan State University, where he worked.
“What I am feeling pales in comparison to the pain, trauma, and emotional destruction that all of you are feeling,” Nassar said, turning at several points to face his victims in court. “There are no words to describe the depth and breadth of how sorry I am for what has occurred,” he said.
But Judge Aquilina scoffed at his apology and read from a letter in which Nassar, despite his guilty plea, again claimed to have been providing legitimate medical treatment: “It was not treatment. It was not medical,” she said. “I wouldn’t send my dogs to you, sir.”
In extraordinary scenes over the past week, around 160 women appeared in court or testified anonymously to the emotional pain and suffering they continue to experience because of the sexual abuse by Nassar.