A shocking new report claims that while the FBI was slowly looking into allegations that ex-USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar had molested three teen gymnasts, he reportedly molested 40 women and young girls who were under his care.
Those girls and women were identified by the New York Times as having been molested during the period between July 2015 to September 2016, when the FBI first started digging into Nassar’s activities to when the Indianapolis Star publicly exposed his alleged behavior.
Nassar, a convicted predator, is now said to have 265 women and young girls accuse him of molesting them while they were seeking treatment from him.
A new report says that at least 40 women and young girls were allegedly molested by Larry Nassar during the more than one year the FBI spent slowly investigating claims against him
It appeared that the FBI continued to take its time investigating claims against Nassar, despite the fact that the agency was in possession of ‘instructional videos’ showing an ungloved Nassar demonstrating treatment techniques including moving his hands around beneath a towel draped over the private parts of young women who were lying face down on a table.
In the video footage, the Times reported, Nassar discussed clinical issues about pulled hamstrings and trigger points and can be seen massaging girls legs, then placing his ungloved hands between the girls’ legs. To the camera, he says, ‘It’s not a fun place to dig.’
At one point, he can be seen shaking his hand vigorously between a girl’s legs saying, ‘Do the hand-shaky thing.’
One alleged victim, dancer Emma Ann Miller, now 15, told the Times that Nassar began molesting her under the guise of treatment when she was only 10 years old. Over the years, the pain she experienced during the ‘treatments’ increased.
Alleged victim, dancer Emma Ann Miller, said that she was repeatedly molested by Nassar during the 12 visits that occurred during the FBI investigation
Gina Nichols, mother of elite gymnast Maggie Nichols (pictured in 2016), said neither she nor her daughter were contacted by the FBI until 11 months had passed during the investigation
Between 2015 and 2016, Miller said that she had gone to Nassar about 12 times for treatment at his office near Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.
Miller said that during those treatments he would ask if her lower back hurt and ‘he would always find a way to touch me down there’ by saying that her pelvis needed an adjustment, whether or not she said her back hurt.
When Miller told her mother that she didn’t want to be in the room with Nassar alone anymore, Nassar apparently continued to grope her, using his body to shield Miller’s mother’s view while he was doing it.
In Spring 2015, elite gymnast Maggie Nichols and Olympian Aly Raisman were overheard talking about Nassar’s inappropriate actions while attending a national team training sessions run by Martha Karolyi.
USA Gymnastics was told about the conversation on June 17.
When Maggie’s mother, Gina Nichols, heard, she said she told the president of USA Gymnastics in June, who allegedly told her that the organization would tell the appropriate authorities and that she should stay quiet about the situation.
After sending in a workplace harassment specialist to investigate and receiving her recommendation that Nassar be reported, USA Gymnastics contacted the FBI bureau in Indianapolis, where the organization is headquarted, July 27 – 41 days after receiving the initial complaint.
However, Gina said that it took 11 months for before she was contacted by the FBI.
It wasn’t until June 13, 2016, that Gina got an e-mail from an FBI agent based in Los Angeles named Michael Hess, who asked her to contact him to discuss ‘a complaint that was filed involving alleged misconduct by an individual associated with USA Gymnastics.’
In speaking with Hess, Gina learned that – contrary to USA Gymnastics’ apparent urging that she keep quiet – she was absolutely allowed to talk about her daughter’s allegations.
When asked by the Times why it took so long for the FBI to reach out to other alleged victims during their investigation into Nassar, the agency said in a statement that the allegations against Nassar ‘transcended jurisdictions,’ implying the need to coordinate among different FBI bureaus and additional law enforcement agencies.
The FBI statement did not address the question of why USA Gymnastics officials might have believed, based on speaking with the FBI at the time, that they were not allowed to do anything or say anything that might interfere with the FBI’s investigation.
Retired FBI agent W. Jay Abbott, who headed up the Indianapolis field office at the time of the investigation, said that it’s a difficult situation to be in for law enforcement to notify others – such as gymnastics, parents and coaches – about the presence of a potential child molester operating within their environs.
‘There is a duty to warn those who might be harmed in the future,’ he told the Times. ‘But everyone is still trying to ascertain whether a crime has been committed. And everybody has rights here’ – as in, people are innocent until proven guilty.
In addition, Abbott said, there was the question of whether Nassar’s ‘treatments’ – which were said to include such things as ‘intravaginal adjustment’ – were legitimate medical procedures.
On September 12, 2016, The Indianapolis Star ran an expose about Nassar’s alleged molestation involving a gymnast who was identified only by the fact that she was an Olympic medalist and that she had filed a lawsuit against Nassar and USA Gymnastics.
In the months that followed, other alleged victims came forward and Nassar was caught trying to dispose of hard drives containing more than 37,000 images and videos of child pornography.
Nassar pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and other charges in July 2017 and was sentenced to serve 60 years in federal prison.
Then, on November 22 and 29, he pleaded to a combined 10 first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges. On January 24, a judge handed down a 40 to 175 year prison sentence for those charges.
Maggie Nichols, Raisman and Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney were among the hundred plus women who stood in courtrooms, confronting Nassar with their accusations.