USA TODAY International Edition
More Nassar survivors hoping for settlement
Over 160 weren’t part of original proceedings
DETROIT – The broken foot led to a cast, which led to a walking boot, which led to hip problems, which led to Larry Nassar.
For another, stiff elbows showed problems with a crooked spine, which led to the need for regular adjustments, which led to Nassar.
The stories and patterns of Nassar’s sexual abuse are the same – but this time they come from more than 160 survivors who are not part of the first wave of more than 330 women who sued Michigan State University and reached a settlement last year. The second wave is hoping for similar treatment, including a settlement that’s the same.
Michigan State settled the first wave of suits for $500 million. Of that, $425 million was for those claimants, and $75 million was set aside for additional suits, as well as the university’s legal fees. A special administrator was set up to divide the settlement. Not everyone was guaranteed the same amount. But if it were divided equally, each filer would have gotten just more than $1.2 million.
In contrast, if the university uses only the remaining $75 million for the second wave, each claimant would get about $400,000, after taking out the university’s legal fees.
Those in the second wave never signed the original settlement, which means they aren’t bound by its terms, their lawyers said. That could lead to more financial uncertainty for the university, despite claims by former interim President John Engler that all the costs related to lawsuits filed by Nassar survivors were known and fixed.
Michigan State declined to comment on specific questions about the financial impact of the lawsuits or settlement strategy. But spokeswoman Emily Guerrant said the university was “working diligently to get closure for each of the plaintiffs and hopes to have the cases resolved as soon as possible.”
Mediation is expected to start this month for the second batch of suits.
“Injuries led all of us sister survivors to where we are today,” said Nicole Casady, 36, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, one of the women in the second wave.
Erin Blayer, another survivor, gave a victim impact statement during Nassar’s trial last year.
“I’m trying to stay hopeful,” said Blayer, now 17, who was a young soccer player when she saw Nassar and was abused by him over several years. “I really hope they can treat us the same as the other survivors. We’re the same.” Consider Tiffani Berra’s story. She was 14 in 1997 when she broke her foot doing a move on the bars. She was placed in a cast and then into a walking boot. That led to hip problems and everyone told her — that the person to see was this doctor in East Lansing: Larry Nassar. So they drove 66 miles south from Bay City, Michigan. On her second visit, Nassar assaulted her.
Nassar, with his victims, would massage their pelvic area and, with an ungloved hand, penetrate them. He claimed it was a legitimate medical procedure, which confused the young girls. Other victims said he also massaged their breasts and behinds.
After Berra’s hip got better, she stopped seeing Nassar until she was in college and had a stress fracture in her back. She went back because he was known as the best doctor for gymnasts. He abused her again under the guise of medically appropriate treatment.
“As I laid on the table, I just wanted it to end,” she said recently. “There was pain. There was discomfort.”
But everyone told her Nassar was “the” doctor to see. He had been the longtime physician for Olympic gymnasts on Team USA.
Then, years later, when Nassar’s trial began, Berra, 36, of Santa Monica, California, began to work her way through what had happened to her.
“It was very, very overwhelming,” she said.
Her job as a physical therapist, working with people with pelvic issues, became really hard to do. She said she started having panic attacks at work – chest pains, difficulty breathing.
“I found myself wishing something would happen, like a car accident, so I wouldn’t have to go to work,” she said. She went to therapy, but eventually had to leave her job and take one in marketing. That came with a pay cut. Recently, she returned to physical therapy work, but this time in pediatrics. But that meant starting at the bottom and working her way up, another pay cut.
Processing it all took time – and it’s why she wasn’t in the first wave of lawsuits.
“I just like to remind (Michigan State University) there’s more of us. We have been through exactly what the girls (in the first wave) went through. We want to be treated the same.”
Mediation talks with the first group of survivors led to the $500 million settlement, which the university is paying through the issuance of a bond in early December. According to the bond paperwork, the university secured the loan by pledging the backing of the school’s general fund. The bonds mature in 2033. The school has to pay between $24 million and $42 million a year on the bond principal.
The school has a negative rating from Moody’s, a credit agency for business and governmental agencies. The poorer a credit rating or outlook, the more a school pays in interest.
In its most recent review, the rating agency noted there’s more financial risk there for Michigan State University from “ongoing potentially material financial and reputational risks from additional claims against its handling of sexual abuse by a former employee.
The need for a second wave of lawsuits is simple, the plaintiffs said: Everyone processes what happened to them at a different time and pace.