Lawyers: Sex doc hurt in jail

Larry Nassar’s attorneys say the disgraced former sports doctor was assaulted within hours of being placed in the general population at the federal prison in Arizona where he is serving a 60-year sentence for child pornography possession.

In motions filed yesterday seeking to have the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor resentenced in the first of two cases in which he pleaded guilty to molesting women and girls who sought treatment, lawyers Jacqueline McCann and Malaika Ramsey-Heath partly blamed the May prison attack on the rhetoric of the judge during that sentencing hearing.

During the seven-day sentencing in January at which at least 169 women and girls provided statements, Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina described Nassar as a “monster” who is “going to wither” like the wicked witch in “The Wizard of Oz.” She said she would allow someone “to do to him what he did to others” if the Constitution allowed, and she told Nassar she was signing his “death warrant” with the sentence she was giving him.

Nassar, 54, will likely never get out of prison. Once his 60-year federal term for child porn possession ends, he would begin serving the 40 to 175-year sentence in state prison that Aquilina gave him for the sexual assaults.

In their filing, Nassar’s court-appointed public appellate defenders did not specify the nature or severity of the attack at the prison in Tucson. But they accused Aquilina of using the nationally televised proceedings to “advance her own agenda” — advocating for policy initiatives and broader cultural change — and improperly agreeing to media interviews during the appeal period.

They said Nassar should be resentenced because Aquilina was neither unbiased nor impartial, arguing that while his plea deal called for a minimum of between 25 and 40 years, she clearly only considered a 40-year minimum.

Aquilina declined to comment on the motions, which she is expected to consider at hearings in August.