NASSAR PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD PORN CHARGES
Larry Nassar, the Michigan State and USA Gymnastics doctor, admitted in federal court Tuesday to having thousands of images and videos of child pornography. Nassar pleaded guilty in front of federal Magistrate Judge Ray Kent, who said, in December, if testimony from an FBI agent was true, Nassar posed “the worst kind of risk to our community: a risk to our children.” That testimony centered on the fact that law enforcement found at least 37,000 videos and images of child pornography on hard drives located on Nassar’s Holt, Mich., property, including videos the agent said appeared to show Nassar sexually assaulting young girls in a pool. The three guilty pleas — on charges of obtaining and possessing child pornography and destroying computer files to hamper the investigation — are the first for Nassar, who still faces three sexual assault cases. “Dr. Nassar’s position on the state cases has not changed and we intend to proceed to trial. The plea today was negotiated only to resolve the federal charges,” Nassar’s attorneys, Matt Newburg and Shannon Smith, said in a statement after the hearing. In a release, Acting U.S. Attorney An
drew Birge said, “With Dr. Nassar’s admissions of guilt on federal charges today, victims and the public can be assured that a day of reckoning is indeed in Dr. Nassar’s future. No one, no matter his station in life, is above the law.” The sentencing guideline range stipulated to in the plea is 22 to 27 years in prison. However, Judge Janet Neff is free to sentence Nassar, 53, above or below that range and order that the sentences be served consecutively. That means he could be sentenced to up to 60 years in prison or as few as five years.