The 59-year-old, a former doctor for USA Gymnastics, was convicted and sentenced to upwards of 300 years behind bars in 2018 after being accused of abuse by more than 250 athletes – including Olympic champion Simone Biles
By Maryam Clark
Last Updated: 10/07/23 3:31pm
Larry Nassar, a disgraced sports doctor who sexually assaulted gymnasts including Olympic medallists, has been stabbed multiple times in federal prison
Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, who sexually assaulted gymnasts including Olympic medallists, was stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another inmate at a federal prison in Florida on Sunday.
The 59-year-old was reported to be in a stable condition.
Nassar, a former doctor for USA Gymnastics, was convicted and sentenced to upwards of 300 years behind bars in 2018 after being accused of abuse by more than 250 athletes – including four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles. Separately, he also pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
During victim impact statements in 2018, several athletes testified that over the course of Nassar’s more than two decades of sexual abuse they had told adults what was happening, including coaches and athletic trainers, but that it went unreported.
More than 100 women collectively sought more than $1 billion from the federal government for the FBI’s failure to stop Nassar when agents became aware of allegations against him in 2015.
Michigan State, which was accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee also made a $380 million settlement.
In June 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a final appeal from Nassar. Attorneys for Nassar said he was treated unfairly in 2018 and deserved a new hearing, based on vengeful remarks by a judge who called him a “monster” who would “wither” in prison like the wicked witch in “The Wizard of Oz.”
“I just signed your death warrant,” Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said of Nassar’s 40-year sentence.
The state Supreme Court said that Nassar’s appeal was a “close question” and that it had “concerns” over the judge’s conduct. But the court also noted that Aquilina, despite her provocative comments, stuck to the sentencing agreement worked out by lawyers in the case.
“We decline to expend additional judicial resources and further subject the victims in this case to additional trauma where the questions at hand present nothing more than an academic exercise,” the court said in a two-page order.
More than 150 victims spoke or submitted statements during an extraordinary seven-day hearing in Aquilina’s court more than four years ago.
“It’s over. Almost six years after I filed the police report, it’s finally over,” said Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar.
