DOCUMENTS DETAIL MICH. SEX ABUSE COMPLAINTS

A former University of Michigan student whose 2018 complaint that a late doctor at the school had molested him during medical exams for routine injuries decades ago says he complained at the time to his wrestling coach and the school’s athletic director about the sexual abuse, according to documents released Friday by the prosecutor’s office.

The university’s president this week apologized to “anyone who was harmed” by Dr. Robert E. Anderson. Mark Schlissel’s comment came a day after the school announced that it had launched an investigation into the doctor’s behavior following abuse allegations from five former patients.

Documents released by the Washtenaw County prosecutor’s office show that a former Michigan wrestler wrote to Athletic Director Warde Manuel in July 2018 with details about repeated fondling during medical exams decades earlier. The name of the wrestler was redacted in records released to The Associated Press.

In a four-page letter, the former wrestler accused the doctor of touching his genitals inappropriately.

The first time this happened was during his freshman year in 1972, when he went to the doctor for treatment for facial cold sores, according to the letter. The wrestler saw the doctor several more times for that condition and was inappropriately touched each time, he wrote.

The wrestler said the doctor again touched him during his junior season after he had dislocated an elbow.

Bill Johannesen, who coached the Michigan wrestling team in the 1970s, told police that, while none of his athletes told him they were violated by a doctor, he did remember them “joking” about one particular doctor who told them to “take your pants down” for a “hurt elbow.” Asked by police to recall the doctor’s name, Johannesen said: “Dr. Anderson.”