Former 
USA 
Gymnastics 

and Michigan State University 
doctor 
Larry 
Nassar 
was 

sentenced to serve 40 years 
to 175 years in state prison 
Wednesday afternoon at the 
conclusion 
of 
a 
week-long 

trial. More than 150 survivors 
of 
sexual 
assault 
delivered 

statements over the course 
of the week, testifying to the 
molestation and abuse they 
suffered at the hands of Nassar 
under the guise of medical 

treatment over the past 30 
years.

Upon 
Judge 
Rosemarie 

Aquilina’s verdict, survivors 
shed tears in the audience. 
Aquilina was defiant. 

“You played on everyone’s 

vulnerabilities,” she said. “I am 
not vulnerable.”

Nassar will serve his state 

sentence 
after 
his 
60-year 

federal sentence on charges 
of child pornography handed 
down in December, Nassar, 
54, for a minimum total of 
100 years. Nassar also faces a 
sentence next week in Eaton 
County on three charges of 
criminal sexual assault due to 
treatments he administered at 
the Twistars gymnastics clinic 
in Dimondale, Michigan. 

Nassar, 
a 
University 
of 

Michigan alum, pled guilty to 
the criminal charges of first-
degree sexual conduct last 
November — the maximum 
sentence on his plea deal was 
40 years. Testifying in Ingham 
County Circuit Court this week, 
survivors revealed more than 
three decades of sexual abuse, 
some of them only six years old 
when they began seeing Nassar.

Rachael Denhollander was 

the first survivor to go public, 
contacting a reporter from 
IndyStar after the publication 
of their investigation into the 
abuse in US Gymnastics in 
September 2016. Her allegations 
began a new wave of reports 
and 
lawsuits. 
Denhollander 

delivered 
the 
final 
victim 

impact statement Wednesday 
to tears and applause from the 
survivors and their families 
assembled in the courtroom.

“How much is a little girl 

worth? How much is a young 
woman 
worth?” 
she 
asked 

Nassar and the court. “Every 
woman who stood up here, 
truly loved you as an innocent 
child. Really truly loved you. 
And it did not satisfy you,” 
Denhollander said. “And that’s 
a joy you’ve cut yourself off 
from ever experiencing. And I 
pity you for it.”

“And this is what it looks 

like when people in authority 
choose 
not 
to 
listen, 
put 

friendships over the truth, 
and refuse to hold enablers 
accountable,” she continued. 

“(We) are fighting because no 
one else would do it.”

Aquilina 
showered 
the 

hundreds of survivors who 
stood before the court with 
affirmation. 
She 
called 

Denhollander 
“the 
bravest 

person I’ve ever had in my 
courtroom.”

Before 
delivering 
her 

sentence, Aquilina addressed 
the survivors one last time, 
reminding them they are no 
longer 
victims, 
calling 
on 

them and anyone watching to 
continue to fight for change.

“Speak 
out 
like 
these 

survivors,” she said. “Become 
part of the army.” 

Following public pressure 

placed on the NCAA for a more 
comprehensive response to this 

abuse, members of the USA 
Gymnastics Board of Directors 
tendered 
their 
resignations 

Sunday, including Chairman 
Paul Parilla, Vice Chairman 
Jay Binder and Treasurer Bitsy 
Kelley.

Tuesday 
evening, 
MSU’s 

athletic department received 
notice 
of 
an 
investigation 

opened by the NCAA into the 
assaults “Nassar perpetrated 
against girls and young women, 
including 
some 
student-

athletes at Michigan State.”

MSU trustee Joel Ferguson 

shrugged at the idea of the 
NCAA investigating MSU in 
a 
Lansing 
radio 
interview 

Tuesday afternoon. Ferguson 
also said the trustees had 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, January 25, 2018

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 62
©2018 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Nassar gets 40 to 175 years in prison on criminal charges

156 women and girls stand before court as survivors of sexual assault, tears and hugs as sentence handed down in Lansing

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

Michigan State University 

President Lou Anna Simon 
has 
tendered 
her 
official 

resignation, 
according 
to 
a 

statement 
released 
on 
the 

school’s 
website 
Wednesday 

night.

MSU 
Board 
of 
Trustees 

President Brian Breslin wrote 
the trustees approved Simon’s 
resignation. Simon has served 
as president for 13 years, and 
has worked at MSU for the last 
30.

“To the survivors, I can 

never say enough that I am so 
sorry that a trusted, renowned 
physician was really such an 
evil, evil person who inflicted 
such harm under the guise of 
medical 
treatment,” 
Simon’s 

statement reads. 

Simon says the scandal has 

been “politicized,” and it is 
“understandable” she is the 
focus of public anger and blame. 

A source told the Detroit 

Free Press potential interim 
presidents 
in 
the 
trustees’ 

succession plan include former 
Michigan 
Govs. 
Jennifer 

Granholm, James Blanchard 
and John Engler.

Calls for Simon to resign 

peaked after Nassar’s sentence 
— 40 to 175 years on first-
degree sexual misconduct — 
was handed down Wednesday 
afternoon. 
Simon 
was 
first 

informed of survivors’ reports 
and Title IX investigations into 
Nassar in 2014.

“I told people to play it 

straight up, and I did not 
receive a copy of the report,” 
she saidafter an appearance at 
Nassar’s hearing. “That’s the 
truth.”

Nassar 
molested 
and 

sexually 
abused 
hundreds 

of women and girls while on 
medical staff, both with MSU’s 
women’s gymnastics team and 

USA Gymnastics. 156 survivors 
delivered 
statements 
at 

Nassar’s week-long sentencing 
hearing 
in 
Ingham 
County 

Circuit Court, detailing three 
decades of abuse under the 
guise of medical treatment. 
Multiple survivors called for 
more accountability at MSU, 
and 
accused 
Simon, 
public 

officials and coaching staff of 
glossing over their reports. 

Rachel 
Denhollander, 
the 

first survivor to go public with 
accusations against Nassar in 
2016, blasted MSU’s handling 
of the case in the final victim 
impact 
statement 
delivered 

Wednesday.

“(MSU) did not listen in 1997 

or 1998 or 1999 or 2000 or 2004 
or 2014,” she said. “Victims 
were silenced, intimidated, told 
they were receiving medical 
treatment, and at times sent 
back to be further abused. This 
is what happens when a person 
puts their selfish desires over 
the people around them. This 
is what it looks like when 
institutions create a culture 
when a predator can behave 
unabated.”

Simon 
made 
brief 

appearances during the trial, 
but said repeatedly she did not 
want to take away from the 
survivors by attending the trial. 

“Lou Anna Simon, why are 

you not here?” survivor Alexis 
Alvarado asked in court Friday. 
“I do not want to hear another 
bullshit excuse from you.” 

Within 
hours 
of 
Judge 

Rosemarie Aquilina’s verdict, 
the 
Michigan 
State 
House 

of 
Representatives 
passed 

a resolution asking MSU to 
resign Simon from her position.

“We have lost confidence 

in the ability of President 
Lou Anna K. Simon to lead a 
transparent investigation, to 
implement changes that will 
ensure it never happens again, 
to protect students, and to 

MSU president resigns after months of scrutiny & scandal 

Trustees accept official announcement Wednesday night after calls from state legislators, survivors and student body 

RIYAH BASHA

Managing News Editor

“JUSTICE 
REQUIRES 
ACTION 

...AND A VOICE AND 

THAT IS WHAT 

HAS HAPPENED IN 

THIS COURT.”

-Judge Rosemarie Aquilina

SOPHIE SHERRY, 
RIYAH BASHA & 

ANDREW HIYAMA
Managing News Editors & 

Daily News Editor

See NASSAR, Page 2

See MSU, Page 3

