Michigan AG vows to find out who knew what at Michigan State
LANSING, Mich.—Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette lashed out at Michigan State University for allowing Larry Nassar to sexually abuse girls and women for years, and he took a shot at the school’s governing body.
“I don’t need advice from the board of trustees,” the aspiring governor said at a packed news conference Saturday about his investigation into the school’s handling of sexual assault claims against the disgraced doctor. “Frankly, they should be the last ones providing advice because of their conduct.”
Schuette said retired prosecutor William Forsyth, who has 40-plus years of experience, will work full time on the independent probe.
“What’s got Michigan State in some trouble here is the sense that they withheld certain information,” Forsyth said. “Maybe because it was going to put them in a better light, but you simply can’t do that.”
Michigan State should establish a compensation fund that “will likely need hundreds of millions of dollars” for victims of Nassar’s abuse, Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley said Saturday. He also said university lawyers should be given instructions to drop attempts to fight lawsuits by the victims and instead move the lawsuits toward settlement.
“I strongly encourage swift action (by MSU) that demonstrates a clear commitment to a dramatic shift in policies,” Calley said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press.
The comments from two top Michigan officials came days after Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for molesting young female athletes and amid growing public pressure to know what school officials knew and how they acted on abuse claims. Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon resigned hours after Nassar was sentenced Wednesday and athletic director Mark Hollis announced his retirement Friday morning.
The Lansing State Journal and The Detroit News reported Friday that Michigan State University didn’t share with a patient the full conclusions of a 2014 Title IX investigation into accusations of sexual assault she made against Nassar.
The patient, Amanda Thomashow, received an abbreviated version of the report, which found Nassar’s conduct wasn’t sexual in nature and therefore didn’t violate the school’s sexual harassment policy.
The school didn’t give Thomashow the rest of its findings, including that Nassar’s failure to explain the “invasive, sensitive procedures” he did and to obtain prior consent from patients was “opening the practice up to liability and is exposing patients to unnecessary trauma based on the possibility of perceived inappropriate sexual misconduct.”
A school spokesman said Thomashow was told the investigation had resulted in recommended policy changes at the Sports Medicine clinic where Nassar worked.
In addition to his duties at Michigan State, Nassar also worked for USA Gymnastics, which trains aspiring Olympians. The group’s entire board of directors is resigning under pressure from the United States Olympic Committee.
No Michigan State trustees have resigned. Under the state constitution, the governor can remove or suspend public officers for “gross neglect of duty,” corruption or “other misfeasance or malfeasance.
Bill Beekman was named acting president by the board on Friday.
“The board will now work to identify an interim president as quickly as possible and immediately begin the national search process for a permanent president,” school spokesman Jason Cody said Saturday.
The school has not said who will replace Hollis after his last day on the job Wednesday.