DETROIT (AP) – A police department in the Lansing, Michigan, area missed an opportunity to pursue criminal charges in 2004 against Larry Nassar and will publicly apologize to the victim who accused the doctor of molesting her during treatment for an abnormal spine, an official said Wednesday.
Meridian Township will make the apology Thursday to Brianne Randall-Gay and announce changes in how it handles sexual misconduct investigations, township Manager Frank Walsh said.
Nassar, who was a sports doctor at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, convinced police that he had performed a legitimate procedure with his hands and even provided a PowerPoint presentation to explain. The case was dropped, effectively allowing him to continue to molest girls and young women, including Olympians, for years until his arrest in 2016. A total of 265 women and girls have said they were assaulted.
In this Jan. 24, 2018, file photo, Larry Nassar sits during his sentencing hearing in Lansing, Mich. The House has followed up on the sex abuse scandal involving Nassar with the passage of legislation that requires governing bodies for amateur athletics to promptly report claims of abuse to law enforcement. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)“We missed it. We’re not going to hide it. We were deceived,” Walsh said.
The township released the 2004 police report on Randall-Gay’s allegations against Nassar. Walsh said the township was told to withhold it from the public until Nassar was sentenced last week to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting young women and girls in Ingham County. Another sentencing is underway this week in a similar case in Eaton County.