Victims’ father goes after doctor in court
A father of two young women who gave victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing of Lawrence G. Nassar was tackled by law enforcement officials when he rushed at the former sports medicine doctor across a courtroom Friday.
The man, Randall Margraves, had been standing next to his daughters Lauren and Madison in Eaton County Circuit Court in Charlotte, Michigan, as they gave statements about Nassar’s sexual abuse. When they were finished, he asked Judge Janice K. Cunningham if she would give him “five minutes in a locked room” with Nassar. When she said no, he asked for one minute.
As she was speaking, saying that he knew she could not do that, Margraves then rushed across the room toward Nassar, who was seated at a table on his left toward the front of the courtroom.
‘Can’t imagine what it is like’
Law enforcement officials wrestled Margraves to the ground, handcuffed him and led him out.
“What if this happened to you guys,” he told the deputies handcuffing him.
It was not clear whether Nassar was injured. The hearing resumed several minutes later.
“I can’t imagine what it is like for a parent,” the judge said as the hearing resumed after Margraves was led out. In addition to the Eaton County hearing, another of his daughters, Morgan, had provided a victim impact statement about Nassar’s abuse at an Ingham County Circuit Court hearing, which ended last week.
Cunningham said Nassar’s sentence would consume his natural life.
“We cannot react by using physical violence and assault against someone who is and has performed criminal acts. That is not how our system works,” she said. “Let’s get back to the business of why we are here,” she said.
Nassar sat with his head down, listening.
Released without charges
After he was removed from the courtroom, Margraves was placed in detention for possible contempt of court, but the judge later released him without charge, Jerri Nesbitt, the executive assistant of Eaton County Sheriff Thomas Reich, said by telephone.
Calls to several members of Margraves’ family were not returned Friday.
The hearing is based on a guilty plea by Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University sports medicine doctor, in November to three counts of criminal sexual conduct, two of them against girls between the ages of 13 and 15, and one against a girl younger than 13, according to the plea deal.
Earlier, the judge had addressed statements this week by Shannon Smith, a lawyer for Nassar. Smith told radio station WWJ that she had a “very hard time” believing that Nassar could have assaulted more than 250 victims,” the Associated Press reported.
She said it’s “really unfortunate” if some girls stepped forward only because of all the attention in the last few weeks, the report said.
Cunningham said before Friday’s hearing started that she met with the lawyers on his team to address the remarks.
“He has disavowed those statements,” she said, adding they were not relevant to the sentencing hearing.