Walker County grand jury indicts Nassar on six counts
Investigators can find no evidence on which to base charges against Bela, Martha Karolyi
HUNTSVILLE — A Walker County grand jury Friday indicted two former USA Gymnastics officials, disgraced physician Larry Nassar and athletic trainer Debra Van Horn, in conjunction with Nassar’s sexual abuse of gymnasts at the Karolyi Ranch in the Sam Houston National Forest.
But investigators said they had no evidence on which to base charges against famed coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, whose secluded ranch served for two decades as the women’s national team training center and where Nassar is accused of abusing world-class gymnasts, including Olympic gold medalists, under the guise of medical care.
Nassar, 54, who is serving the equivalent of a life sentence after pleading guilty in Michigan to state charges of sexual abuse and federal charges of possessing child pornography, was indicted on six charges of sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison, a maximum $10,000 fine or both.
Van Horn, 63, who worked for USA Gymnastics for almost 30 years through last January, most recently as director of sports medicine services, was indicted on one charge of sexual abuse of a child. She is not in custody, but her attorney, Philip Hilder of Houston, who also is representing USA Gymnastics in two Walker County lawsuits, has been informed of the indictment, officials said.
The detailed indictments were not immediately made public, but Walker County officials said they involve crimes against six women, with one of the six being the basis for charges against Nassar and Van Horn.
Walker County District Attorney David Weeks said Van Horn acted “as a party” to the offense but did not elaborate.
Even though Nassar is serving a lengthy prison sentence, Weeks said the grand jury chose to indict him in Walker County “because it’s the right thing to do, because these victims deserve to be heard, because they deserve justice.”
The decision to indict Nassar and Van Horn but to spare the Karolyis was greeted with thanks by the Karolyis’ attorney, David Berg, and with disdain by John Manly, who represents several dozen of Nassar’s victims and has filed lawsuits against USA Gymnastics and the Karolyis for failure to protect athletes from Nassar’s abuse.
“The Karolyis are grateful to the Texas Rangers and the Walker County DA’s office for reaching the only conclusion they could have reached, that this exonerates them and removes a terrible cloud,” Berg said. “They will continue to cooperate, but this investigation could go on until the end of time and there will never be charges against Bela and Martha Karolyi because they have done nothing wrong.”
Manly, in contrast, said the decision to indict Nassar, in light of the lengthy prison sentences already handed down, made as much sense as “digging up Lee Harvey Oswald and indicting him for the murder of President Kennedy.”
“Walker County made it clear to the survivors that the Karolyis were never going to be a target of the investigation,” he said. “This is a classic example of insiders protecting insiders. The universal response of the survivors and their families is they feel nauseous about the way this was handled. I am convinced if this were a high school football team in Walker County, they would have gotten better treatment than these women did. I’ve seen police departments take speeding violations more seriously.”
Walker County officials said during a prepared statement read during a news conference that they first received word of allegations against Nassar on Oct. 31, 2016.
Two cases were turned over to the FBI, they said, and local officials did not become involved again until Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Texas Rangers in February to assist Walker County officials in determining whether charges in the Nassar case were warranted in Texas.
Texas law required the immediate reporting to law enforcement of suspected child sexual abuse, but because of the twoyear statute of limitations on charges related to such actions, no charges of failure to report could be brought in Walker County, officials said.
But, officials said, in a statement read by assistant district attorney Stephanie Stroud, “There was a total failure by USA Gymnastics to protect the athletes that were part of their program and to take appropriate action once they were made aware of Dr. Nassar’s actions.”
Weeks and Stroud said they continue to seek information from USA Gymnastics as their investigation continues and are willing to hear from other gymnasts who have evidence to offer in the case.
Prosecutors said Rhonda Faehn, who succeeded Martha Karolyi as women’s national team coordinator but was dismissed this year, has cooperated with the investigation.
Of Steve Penny, the former USA Gymnastics president who invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in refusing to testify before a congressional hearing several weeks ago, Weeks said, “He didn’t provide much assistance.”
Asked about the absence of charges against the Karolyis, Stroud said: “We do not believe there is any corroborated evidence … that they did anything wrong. There were others who may have fallen within criminal behavior, but they are outside the statute of limitations.”
Attorneys Michelle Simpson Tuegel of Waco and Mo Aziz of Houston, who have filed Nassarrelated lawsuits, also were critical of the Walker County investigation.
“Walker County appears to have no intention of holding all of the adults who failed, such as the Karolyis, accountable, which is why we asked the Texas attorney general to get involved,” Tuegel said. “It is up to the federal Department of Justice to hold all of the adults who failed these children and covered up the abuse accountable. It is clear Texas will not.”
Aziz said the inability to file failure to report charges spotlights the need for Texas to extend the statute of limitations in such cases.
But former federal prosecutor Ashlee McFarlane with the Houston law firm Gerger Khalil & Hennessy said the suggestion to extend the statute of limitations creates a “Catch-22” situation for legislators, because it could increase the chance of unfounded complaints that cannot be easily corroborated.
McFarlane agreed the decision to charge Nassar in Texas makes no practical sense but could allow victims of his alleged crimes at the Karolyi Ranch “to have some sort of recompense for the harm he allegedly caused them.”
She also said she doubted Walker County would have considered an expanded investigation or charges without Abbott’s order for the Texas Rangers to join the probe.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement that it is “fully cooperating with the investigations by the Texas Rangers, Congress and others, and we will continue do so.”