CHARLOTTE, Mich. (WOOD) — Larry Nassar, the former sports doctor who sexually assaulted his patients, will be back in court today as his sentencing hearing in Eaton County continues.
On the first day of the hearing in a Charlotte courtroom Wednesday, about 30 girls and women stood up to say Nassar had sexually abused them.
“What you did to me was twisted,” one of the accusers, 17-year-old Jessica Thomashow, said to Nassar in court.
“You are the most vile, disgusting creature I have ever met,” another woman, Katherine Ebert, told him.
With more than 60 victim impact statements expected, the sentencing hearing is expected continue into next week as more women are given the opportunity to confront Nassar.
When Nassar was previously sentenced for related sexual assault charges in Ingham County, the hearing lasted seven days as 156 girls, women and supporters faced him.
The victims have described the pain of the abuse and the lingering ways it has affected their lives in the form of distrust, anxiety and depression. Several said they had suicidal thoughts. The mother of one victim who took her own life said her daughter’s downward spiral started with Nassar.
Regardless of his sentence in the Eaton County case, Nassar, 54, will die in prison. He was already sentenced to 60 years for federal child pornography charges and an additional 40 to 175 years for the Ingham County case.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina told Nassar as she handed down his sentence last week.
Nassar pleaded guilty in all three cases.
He was a celebrated sports doctor at Michigan State University and for USA Gymnastics for some two decades. A total of 265 people have come forward to say he abused them under the guise of providing medical care. The accusers include high school and collegiate athletes and Olympians. Many were preteens or teens when the abuse started; one woman said she was only 6 when it first happened.
The case in Eaton County involves assaults at Twistars, a gymnastics club run by former Olympic coach John Geddert, who was suspended by USA Gymnastics in the wake of the scandal.
Under accusations that MSU staff enabled Nassar — either discouraging victims from reporting the abuse or not properly investigating complaints — university President Lou Anna K. Simon and Athletic Director Mark Hollis have stepped down. Earlier this week, former Michigan Gov. John Engler was named the university’s interim president.
On Thursday night, a crowd of more than 700 packed the Kellogg Center in Lansing for a town hall meeting with the MSU Board of Trustees. Many were upset with the choice of Engler as interim president.