In this Nov. 22, 2017 file photo, Dr. Larry Nassar appears in court for a plea hearing in Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
By Corey Williams and Joey Cappelletti
Women who were sexually assaulted by former Michigan State University sports doctor Larry Nassar filed a lawsuit Thursday saying school officials made “secret decisions” about releasing documents in the case.
The group of survivors and parents says the lawsuit seeks accountability — not money — from the university. They say the school refused to give the state attorney general’s office more than 6,000 documents for an investigation into how Nassar was allowed to get away with his behavior, and later wouldn't turn over emails about the board of trustees' decision-making. The school has said the documents are protected by attorney-client privilege.
“It’s really, really hard to heal when you know there’s still answers to a lot of your questions out there,” Nassar survivor Elizabeth Maurer said at a press conference Thursday in East Lansing.
Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to 40 to 175 years in prison after he admitted to molesting some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years under the guise of medical treatment. He was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of women and girls.
Michigan State has been criticized for its handling of the Nassar investigation and its dealings with survivors in the aftermath of his arrest and conviction. The school has settled lawsuits filed by Nassar victims for $500 million.
Mark Bullion, a spokesperson for Michigan State, said in an email Thursday that the school does not comment on pending litigation, and that the school has not seen or been served with the new lawsuit.
The civil suit names the school and its elected trustee board, saying the decisions and “secret votes” by a public body skirted Michigan's open meetings laws and the state Constitution.
“We contend that board members made a behind-closed-doors secret decision not to release the records in blatant violation of the Open Meetings Act,” victims' attorney Azzam Elder said in a release.
Elder said at Thursday's press conference that he has asked an Ingham County judge for a jury trial and that video deposition of the board members be allowed. “If you’re going to lie about it, at least have the guts to do it publicly,” Elder said.
The suit wants the school to turn over emails and other communications about decisions trustees may have made out of the public eye and to have a court declare that Michigan State violated the Freedom of Information Act, and to compel the university to comply with both FOIA and the Open Meetings Act going forward.
Attorney General Dana Nessel has asked the school to release the more than 6,000 documents to help shine a light on what the school knew about the abuse. She ended her investigation in 2021 of the school's handling of the Nassar case because the university refused to provide documents related to the scandal.
“This is about who knew what, when at the university,” Nassar survivor Melissa Brown Hudecz said in a statement read Thursday. “We can’t heal as a community until we know that everyone who enabled a predator is accountable. By protecting the 6,000 secret documents and anyone named in them, the board is adding to survivors’ trauma with their lack of institutional accountability.”
Earlier this month, Nassar was stabbed multiple times by another prisoner in his federal penitentiary cell in Florida. The prisoner said Nassar provoked the attack by making a lewd comment about wanting to see girls play in the Wimbledon women's tennis match while they were watching the tournament on TV, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack or the ongoing investigation and did so on condition anonymity.
With the Beijing Winter Olympics set to get underway on Friday, Dan Wolken, a national columnist for USA Today, joined Cheddar News to break down the big storylines as the pandemic and international conflicts threaten to cast a cloud over the event that is aspirationally seen as a beacon of international cooperation. Wolken noted specific issues over cybersecurity for visiting athletes and disputes over human rights leading to a diplomatic boycott have been making waves even before the opening ceremony. "So you've got sort of these barbs going back and forth already between the Americans and the Chinese, and things haven't even started yet," he said. "We don't even know what's going to happen once the games start and people actually start winning medals."
We are a week away from the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and China has already faced a host of problems leading up to the opening ceremony of the Beijing games. DJ Peterson, president of Longview Global Advisors, joins Cheddar News to discuss the many concerns and controversies surrounding the event.
The Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will be the two teams competing at Super Bowl LVI after both survived their respective nail-biting conference championships. The Big Game will be held at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, home of the Rams, potentially granting them a home-field advantage. Frank Schwab, a sportswriter for Yahoo Sports, joined Cheddar to discuss what bettors should be looking for at this year’s NFL finale. "Super Bowl, unlike any other game on the NFL schedule, where if people bet once a year, it's going to be on the Super Bowl, especially with so many states having legal betting now," Schwab said.
It's a big weekend for sports betting, with the NFL conference championships and Australian Open finals expected to bring the industry even more traffic. And if record viewership of the divisional playoff game between the Chiefs and Bills was any indication, sports betting will only continue to grow as football season comes to an end. Joe Raineri, sports betting analyst at SportsGrid, joined Cheddar to discuss how these sporting events could impact the industry, which is expected to get even bigger in 2022.
Trysta Krick breaks down the Bengals-Chiefs matchup while Lester Ricard Jr. dissects what will be the third meeting of the season for the 49ers and Rams. Meanwhile, on the hardwood, Brian Bennett says that college basketball bettors should focus on a team's road wins as an early indicator for success in March.
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Trysta Krick, host of BetMGM Tonight, joins Cheddar Bets to break down her best plays in the AFC Championship game and gives a fix for the NFL OT rules.
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Wednesday marked two years since the basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others died in a tragic helicopter crash. In remembrance, a bronze statue has been temporarily placed at the site with all of the passenger's names included on the memorial.
With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics right around the corner, experts are warning that climate change is threatening not only the event but also the future of snow sports. Despite being the world's top polluter, China is hoping to use the event to demonstrate the country's commitment to fighting climate change, and pledging to host a "low carbon" games. Xubin Zeng, professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona, joins Cheddar News.
As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics inches closer, sponsors are facing mounting pressure to pull out of the games with China is under fire for controversies like the alleged human rights abuses against its Muslim minority population and the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai. Rick Burton, professor of sport management at Syracuse University, joined Cheddar to discuss what he expects to happen once the games begin. Burton said China is too large of a market for American advertisers to ignore, and he doesn't expect any of them to pull out of the games. "Olympic sponsors right now I think are really just trying to hang on and get through these 17 days, come out the other end," he said.
As controversy dogs the run-up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China is hiring TikTokers and other social media influencers to promote the nation's history, culture, diplomatic efforts, and current trends.
