CHARLOTTE, Mich. -- Another wave of women and girls confronted Larry Nassar on Wednesday, this time about sexual abuse at an elite Michigan gymnastics club where young athletes believed they had to use the doctor's services and could not question the adults who ran the facility.
The judge presiding over the case said the number of people who allege they were abused by Nassar has topped 265. That total includes 150-plus victims who offered statements at a different hearing last week, as well as scores of new ones expected to speak over the next few days.
Nassar, who has already been sentenced on federal child-pornography charges and charges that he abused young women and girls while working for Michigan State University, faces another long prison sentence on top of the two he has already received.
"You are the most vile, disgusting creature I have ever met," said Katherine Ebert, who was a gymnast from ages 5-18 and started seeing Nassar at 15. "There are black holes in my memory that come back as nightmares or flashbacks, not wanting to believe they're true."
Nassar, once the doctor for the national gymnastics team, sat at a table with his lawyers as nearly 30 accusers rebuked him. They discussed the psychological scars from his abuse -- depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, trouble being around male teachers and other men, and fractured relationships with family members.
"You took advantage of my innocence and trust," 17-year-old Jessica Thomashow said. "You were my doctor. Why? I ask myself that question all the time. What you did to me was twisted. You manipulated me and my entire family. How dare you."
Judge Janice Cunningham has set aside several days for more than 60 women and girls who want to confront Nassar or have their statements read in the courtroom in Charlotte, a city outside Lansing.
The event thus far appears to be set up similarly to last week's proceedings in another county. That hearing ended with Nassar getting to 40-175 years in prison, a sentence described by that judge as Nassar's "death warrant."
The case on Cunningham's docket in Eaton County centers on Nassar's assaults at Twistars, a Lansing-area gymnastics club that was run by 2012 Olympic coach John Geddert. Nassar admits penetrating three girls with his hands when he was supposed to be treating them for injuries.
Victims said they were instructed to see Nassar about their injuries, not their family doctors. Many of them concluded that it was mandatory.
Bailey Lorencen recalled that Nassar went to Twistars on Monday nights to provide free treatment. After an especially bad fall from a high bar, she broke her neck in four places and narrowly escaped being paralyzed. Nassar consoled her.
"I felt like Larry was my hero," she said in a statement read by a prosecutor.
That kind of trust, she said, allowed the doctor to do as he pleased with the young patients.
"It is clear that in an environment like Twistars, a monster like Nassar should thrive," she said in the statement. "He just had to be the nice guy so that all these little girls would look at him as a savior and that safe place at the gym."
A nearby police department admitted that it missed an opportunity to pursue charges against Nassar in 2004.
After a 17-year-old girl complained that Nassar removed her underwear and touched her genitals and breast, Meridian Township police began investigating. But officers dropped the case after Nassar explained that he was performing a legitimate technique known as a ligament release. Nassar even provided a Power Point presentation.
Township Manager Frank Walsh said Nassar deceived police.
"We missed it. We're not going to hide it," Walsh said.
Also Wednesday, former Michigan Gov. John Engler was formally named interim president at Michigan State, after Lou Anna Simon's resignation last week from the school's top post. Engler will head the school as it deals with lawsuits filed by more than 100 people alleging abuse and investigations by the state attorney general, the NCAA and Congress.
A Section on 02/01/2018