Larry Nassar, disgraced former US gymnastics team doctor, was nearly attacked court on Friday, February 2, 2018 by Randall Margraves, the father of three of his sexual abuse victims.
Margraves had to be restrained by court security officers as he charged at Nassar, who was last month sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
Margraves had asked the judge to be allowed time alone in a room with the disgraced doctor and, when he was told that was not possible, he tried to take matters into his own hands.
“I want that son of a bitch!” he shouted as he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed.”What if this happened to you?” he asked the officers restraining him.
After a break, the judge addressed those still in the courtroom and, while admitting the situation is difficult, she called for those present to resist resorting to violence.
Nassar, 54, worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, the governing body that also trains Olympians. He was sentenced last week to 40 to 175 years in prison for assaulting seven people in the Lansing area; more than 150 statements were given in that seven-day hearing. He was sentenced in December to 60 years in federal prison for possessing thousands of images of child pornography.
Here are excerpts of some victims’ statements from the hearing that started Wednesday in Charlotte, Michigan, where Nassar pleaded guilty to molesting three gymnasts at an elite club run by an Olympic coach:
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Soccer player Erin Blayer said she starting seeing Nassar for excruciating back pain at age 12.
She told him: “I am here to move on and leave you in my past.”
Blayer said one takeaway for her is that “the bad guy never wins. … My last tears have already been shed over you.”
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Jessica Thomashow, 17, said Nassar molested her at ages 9 and 12 when she had rib displacement and a stress fracture in her ankle.
“You took advantage of my innocence and trust. You were my doctor. Why? I ask myself that question all the time. What you did to me was twisted. You manipulated me and my entire family. How dare you?”
She said at Twistars injured gymnasts were instructed to see Nassar, not their family doctor. She said she wanted to be a sports doctor, but the dream “died” after Nassar’s abuse.
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Michigan State University student Katherine Ebert said she was a gymnast since the age of 5 and began seeing Nassar when she was 15.
“You are the most vile, disgusting creature I have ever met,” she told him in court. “There are black holes in my memory that come back as nightmares or flashbacks, not wanting to believe they’re true.”
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Annie Labrie was a full-time gymnast through adolescence. She traveled to Twistars gymnastics club, spending 25 hours a week there, not including the hour-and-a-half drive each way. Nassar was her doctor for five years. She said she saw him for a back injury and was treated at Twistars, Michigan State and the basement of his home.
She said his treatments “made my skin crawl. I rejected my intuition anyway because every adult and authority figure around me assured me that this, that competing was the only option.
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