Women share Nassar reaction
98 victims to speak at ex-USA Gymnastics doctor’s sentencing for sexual assault
LANSING, Mich. – Their remarks are both brutal and triumphant.
On the first morning of Larry Nassar’s four-day sentencing hearing, 14 women and girls spoke, sharing their pain and anguish after being sexually abused. They included Kyle Stephens, the woman Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting in his home when she was a child visiting with her parents.
“Perhaps you have figured it out by now,” she said, addressing Nassar directly as he looked down, covering his eyes with his hand. “Little girls don’t stay little forever. They grow into strong women that return to destroy your world.”
All 125 women and girls who filed reports about Nassar with police were given the chance to give impact statements during Nassar’s sentencing if they choose. Court officials say 98 plan to do so, either in person or through submitted statements.
They are the “Me Too’s” Nassar himself once predicted.
Days after The Indianapolis Star reported that two women said Nassar sexually assaulted them during medical appointments, Nassar emailed his boss, the dean of Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, to tell him about all the support he’d received from the gymnastics community.
Then, Nassar hinted there might be more who would say he had abused them.
“I am trying to make sure I take advantage of this time before the ‘ Me Too’s’ come out in the media and the second media blitz occurs,” he emailed his boss, William Strampel, on Sept. 15, 2016, the day prosecutors told the State Journal they’d received a “handful” of new allegations.
Those “Me Too’s” have burgeoned into an army who will fill four days on Judge Rosemarie Aquilina’s docket, detailing their devastation after being abused by Nassar and telling Nassar what they think of him now. Many are appearing in person, walking to a podium on the third floor of Veterans Memorial Courthouse, where Aquilina expects to sentence Nassar on Friday.
Nassar, 54, of Holt, Mich., pleaded guilty in November to 10 sexual assault charges split between Ingham and Eaton counties. In December, he was sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges.
The women and girls can choose to speak anonymously in court, with media forbidden to report their names. But many opted to be identified, including some minors whose parents had to confirm that decision for the judge.
Jade Capua said her first plan was to speak anonymously, but she changed her mind.
“After thinking about it, and taking time to cope with facing this fear of mine, I decided to finally put a name to it,” she said.
“I am Jade Capua, and I am a survivor.”
The women and girls who spoke detailed the abuse they said they suffered at Nassar’s hands, often looking right at him as they said what he did to them.
They spoke about the lasting trauma, self doubt and loss of trust. They shared how the abuse impacted their school work, their relationships and their career goals.
They spoke about depression, or as Danielle Moore put it, being “stuck in the darkness.”
“You are no longer a doctor,” she told Nassar. “You have been stripped of your medical license. And soon, you’ll be known by your prison number for what I hope to be the maximum sentence.
“I find this fitting, as I was a thing, inhuman or just a number to you. ... I will no longer be known as a number. And I will be known as Dr. Danielle Moore.”