LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says Michigan State University did not always act appropriately in withholding documents related to serial sex abuser Larry Nassar.
The former sports medicine doctor at M-S-U was sentenced in 2018 to decades in prison. The university's Board of Trustees recently transferred those documents to Nessel's office for review. She says many of the Nassar documents were not covered by legal privilege.
"Accordingly, there was no justification, no justifiable reason to withhold those documents for any period of time, let alone an extended period," Nessel said Tuesday in a videoconference call with the media.
"Furthermore ... the documents that, arguably, contained privileged information did not offer any new insight into MSU's handling of the abuse, or who knew what about it and when," she said.
Michigan State had said it felt many of the documents were protected from being released under client-attorney privilege. Nessel disagreed.
The university's Board of Trustees recently transferred more than 105,000 Nassar-related documents to the Attorney General's office.
"MSU has repeatedly justified withholding the documents because they contained information that was allegedly protected by the attorney-client privilege. Our review has revealed that this justification was not always appropriate. A significant number - if not a majority - of the documents did not appear to us to be covered by that privilege, at all," Nessel said.
She added that the university prolonged the hope that the questions the survivors had would be answered, "and denied them closure that they were entitled to many years ago."
The university released a statement to WOOD Radio on Wednesday afternoon:
We respect the thorough efforts made by the Attorney General’s office in its extensive investigation, and we recognize the impact this has had on survivors, their families, and the MSU community.
Throughout the course of the investigation, MSU has fully complied with the attorney general’s office and has provided more than 100,000 documents related to facts surrounding the entirety of the case. The university maintains that our interpretation and application of the attorney-client privilege was appropriate, as determined by East Lansing District Court Judge Richard Ball in 2019.
Since 2016, the university has taken significant steps to improve campus safety and culture through robust prevention, support, and response efforts. We are working to become a more accountable organization each day, guided by an unwavering commitment to providing a safe campus and equitable environment for all. We echo the attorney general’s comments in acknowledging the role survivors have made in advocating for change and improvements surrounding assault and abuse in our state and globally.
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