Debra Van Horn, 63, was indicted on Friday for second-degree sexual assault of a child
Prosecutors have filed sexual assault charges against Larry Nassar and a female trainer who worked at his side, expanding the worst abuse scandal in US sports history.
Debra Van Horn, 63, was indicted on Friday on one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child by a grand jury in in Walker County, Texas home of the famed Karolyi gymnastics ranch, about 70 miles north of Houston.
Nassar, a former sports doctor, was also charged with six new counts of sexually assaulting minors. He is already serving an effective life sentence.
Van Horn, a former sports medicine trainer, is the first person other than Nassar to be charged in direct connection with the assaults. She had worked at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics for 30 years.
The investigation also cleared world-renowned gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, whose ranch served as a training site for Olympians.
Larry Nassar appears in court for a plea hearing in Lansing, Michigan in January. He was hit with new charges of sexual assault in Texas on Friday, expanding the gymnastics scandal
Walker County District Attorney David Weeks said Van Horn was charged as ‘acting as a party’ with Nassar. He didn’t elaborate. Efforts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful, and the name of her lawyer wasn’t immediately known.
In Michigan, Nassar was sentenced earlier this year to decades in prison, after hundreds of women and girls accused him of molesting them with his hands under the guise of medical treatment.
They said the abuse went as far back as the 1990s while he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.
USA Gymnastics issued a statement saying Van Horn is no longer an employee.
According to a news release on its website, Van Horn was part of a youth development camp for gymnasts in 2016.
The new charges relate to the now-shuttered Karolyi gymnastics ranch in Texas
Gymnast workout with their personal coaches during a morning workout session at Karolyi Ranch in this 2011 file photo
She was listed as a member of the USA Gymnastics Medical Task Force , which was started in 2013. The task force was established to provide leadership and oversight of USA Gymnastics’ practices, procedures and protocols regarding athlete care.
She also was involved with care of athletes on the 2014 JumpStart National Team for athletes ages 8-10.
Those roles put Van Horn in contact with potentially dozens of young athletes, like Nassar victim Mattie Larson, who said at his sentencing in January in Michigan that Van Horn ‘would be in the room many of the times’ Nasser abused her.
‘If a trainer, a professional trainer, doesn’t say anything about it, I should trust her,’ Larson said. ‘At least that’s what I thought.’
The Karolyis have denied wrongdoing . They couldn’t be reached for comment Friday; a call to the number listed for Bela Karolyi wasn’t answered.
Bela Karolyi, left, and his wife, Martha Karolyi, are seen in a file photo. Investigators on Friday declined to implicate them in alleged abuse that took place on their famed training ranch
‘The Karolyis were and remain fully cooperative with this investigation. There is no corroborated evidence of any criminal conduct’ by the couple, said Stephanie Stroud, a Walker County prosecutor.
Stroud said investigators tried to determine if anyone at the ranch knew about Nassar’s conduct and didn’t report it. But the two-year statute of limitations had already lapsed on any possible misdemeanor charges of failure to report.
‘That in no way means there was no wrongdoing at the ranch or within the ranks of USAG,’ Stroud said, referring to USA Gymnastics. ‘It is our belief that there was a total failure by USAG to protect the athletes that were part of their program and to take appropriate action once they were made aware of Dr. Nassar’s actions.’
In a statement, USA Gymnastics said it is cooperating with Texas investigators and is committed ‘to doing everything possible to prevent this from happening again.’
Nassar, 54, probably won’t be free again due to his long prison sentences for assault and child pornography crimes. But Weeks, the district attorney, said he still wants to bring him to Texas to face the charges.
‘There are a number of hoops we have to jump through to get him here,’ Weeks told reporters.
A sign points to the Karolyi Ranch near New Waverly, Texas. The facility has since closed and Nassar has been imprisoned for life
The Karolyis are suing the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics, seeking more than $1 million for the canceled sale of their training center near Huntsville – a transaction that tanked in the wake of the Nassar scandal.
Several former gymnasts have also filed lawsuits. One of them, Sabrina Vega, filed a lawsuit in May alleging USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Karolyis failed to protect her and other athletes.
Vega, who was on the team that won a gold medal at the 2011 World Championships, alleges the organizations and the Karolyis ignored signs about Nassar’s behavior or should have known he posed a risk.
She said Nassar molested her hundreds of times during medical treatments from 2008, when she was 12 years old, until 2012. Vega said the abuse occurred during competitions and at the Karolyi ranch.
Congress passed a bill in January that makes members of amateur sports organizations, including those that run Olympic sports, mandatory reporters of sexual abuse. It also requires the organizations to implement standard protections for athletes.