Larry Nassar makes 7 guilty pleas, victim calls him 'master manipulator'

LANSING - For more than 14 months, through more than 100 sexual assault allegations, former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar had maintained that he performed legitimate medical procedures.

That changed this morning.

Nassar, 54, of Holt, pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with seven victims. All but one was abused during a medical appointment. Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina accepted his guilty pleas and set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 12. Aquilina said the sentencing hearing would run all day or multiple days if needed to allow all victims who desire to make statements. 

"I think this is important, what I've done today to help move the community forward and away from the hurting, let the healing start," Nassar said near the end of the hearing. "A couple things I could do to stop the hurting, is this. And I think that's important. 

"For all those involved, I'm so horribly sorry that this was like a match that turned into a forest fire out of control."

He added that he prays the rosary every day for forgiveness and wants the victims to heal. 

"I have no animosity toward anyone. I just want healing. ... We need to move forward."   

The plea agreement is with the Michigan Attorney General's Office, which is prosecuting the former Michigan State University doctor. The deal set a sentencing range of 25 to 40 years as the low end of Nassar's prison sentence, which Aquilina will set at sentencing. The charges carry maximum sentences of life in prison. The AG's office also agreed not to bring additional charges. 

Watch the full hearing for Larry Nassar here. 

'He's a master manipulator'

A few of the more than 140 women and girls who say Nassar abused them were in court for the hearing. Among them was Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual assault. 

"It really demonstrated the psychological state Larry is in," she said during a news conference following the hearing. "He's a consummate narcissist. He's a master manipulator. Those are both qualities that you typically see with pedophiles, particularly pedophiles who are very prevalent.

"I don't believe there was anything sincere in what Larry said, other than his desire to refocus the attention on the good he believed he did today by allowing the community to move forward."

Aquilina said she was proud of the women for being there and for finding their voices. 

"That tells me they're finding the strength to come here today to show you they're not victims anymore," she said. "You used your position of trust. You used that position of trust that you had in the most vile way — to abuse children.

"I agree that now is the time of healing, but it may take them a lifetime a healing while you spend your lifetime behind bars thinking about what you did in taking away their childhood."

Larissa Boyce sat in the front of the courtroom gallery, just behind MSU police Lt. Andrea Munford, who led the investigation of Nassar.

Boyce watched as the man she says sexually abused her when she was a teen spoke his plea of "guilty" seven times. She's not one of the seven victims connected to Ingham County charges. 

"Today was validation that my inclinations were correct," she said after the hearing. "Hearing it from his own mouth, it was just validating. It also made me really angry, angry to know that it had been going on for so long."

More than 140 women and girls have filed lawsuits against Nassar, MSU or USA Gymnastics and said that Nassar sexually abused them. The allegations date to as early as 1994. 

In 1997, Boyce and another woman, who were both teens at the time, said they raised concerns about Nassar to then MSU gymnastics coach Kathie Klages. They say in court records that Klages discouraged them from filing formal complaints. 

"(I'm) angry to know that I had come forward to Kathie and said, 'Hey, I'm uncomfortable. Something doesn't seem right.' It made me really angry that he's now admitting it and that it could have been stopped. Hundreds of girls could have been spared.

"But I feel like this is also a step in the direction of healing, too, to be able to really start to move on from it. It's always going to be there, but (today helps) to be able to continue to move on and continue to heal."

Boyce and other women and girls who raised concerns about Nassar were all told he performed legitimate medical procedures, according to lawsuits, interviews and university records. 

It's a defense Nassar and his attorneys maintained for more than a year. 

The allegations became public in September 2016, after the Indianapolis Star detailed the accounts of two women, including Denhollander. Since then, more than 120 have gone to police and at least 140 have filed lawsuits related to alleged sexual assaults by Nassar.

Days after the IndyStar story, Nassar, through his attorneys Matt Newburg and Shannon Smith, denied any wrongdoing. 

"These techniques are medically accepted and appropriate treatments, according to doctors who practice osteopathic manual medicine," his attorneys wrote in a statement. 

"Any allegations that Dr. Nassar was performing these procedures for any purpose other than proper medical treatment are patently false and untrue."

This morning, on the third floor of Veterans Memorial Courthouse in downtown Lansing, Nassar admitted to sexually assaulting Denhollander during a medical appointment when she was 15 years old. 

Another plea hearing next week

While it was stated in the plea agreement, Aquilina made a point of having Nassar again admit that what he did wasn't a medical procedure. 

He hesitated, but admitted that it wasn't a legitimate medical procedure. 

Nassar also faces sexual assault charges in Eaton County. A plea hearing in that case is set for Nov. 29. And on Dec. 7, Nassar will be sentenced in federal court on three child pornography charges after pleading guilty in July. 

It's likely that the Eaton County plea agreement will mirror the Ingham County agreement. 

In exchange for Nassar's guilty plea prosecutors agreed to drop eight other charges in Ingham County, not to add charges for other sexual assault incidents known at this time and not to charge on child pornography evidence that doesn't relate to the existing federal child pornography charges. 

Nassar pleaded guilty to several charges involving a victim who was younger than 13. State statute sets the minimum for those charges at 25 years, but the agreement sets a minimum sentence range of 25 to 40 years, with the judge setting the minimum. The charges for victims who were older than 13 don't have mandatory minimums. 

The sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 12, but could extend beyond that day depending on how many of the victims in the Ingham case want to make statements. The hearing also will include victim impact statements from other women who say Nassar sexually abused them, but whose complaints were not connected to charges.

Boyce said she'll be among those who speak, but hasn't thought about what she'll say. 

"It's so overwhelming that I'm still trying to process (it)," she said. "... I don't know what I'm going to say yet, but it'll be good."

Here’s a timeline of Nassar’s decades-long career and the allegations against him. This will continue to be updated.

Here's a map of key people and connections in the Nassar cases. This will continue to be updated.

Christopher Haxel contributed to this report. Contact Matt Mencarini at (517) 267-1347 or mmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMencarini.

What's next

A sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar, 54, of Holt, is scheduled for Jan. 12 in Ingham County Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty to seven sexual assault charges.