Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been sentenced to up to 175 years in prison, a judge announced Wednesday, January 24, 2018 after hearing statements from more than 150 women and girls who said he sexually abused them over the past two decades.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said. “I find that you don’t get it, that you’re a danger. That you remain a danger.”
Larry Nassar defended his medical practices and accused the women who said he sexually abused them of lying for media attention and financial reward, according to a letter he wrote to the court last week.
“I was a good doctor because my treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out are the same ones that praised and came back over and over,” Nassar wrote in the letter. “The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina read aloud parts of the letter in court during his sentencing.
Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar addressed the court in Lansing, Michigan, Wednesday before the judge announced his sentence on charges of sexual misconduct.
Nassar apologized in a brief statement, turning around to directly address the victims and saying that the comments “have shaken me to my core.”
“There are no words that can describe the depth and breadth of how sorry I am for what has occurred,” he said. “An acceptable apology to all of you is impossible to write and convey. I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days.”
How much is a little girl worth? How much is a young woman worth?
Those were the powerful questions posed by former gymnast Rachael Denhollander at Larry Nassar’s criminal sentencing hearing on Wednesday. And they are now questions that Judge Rosemarie Aquilina must consider as she prepares to sentence the former USA Gymnastics doctor.
Over the course of seven full days, Denhollander and other victims of Nassar approached the podium in the courtroom in Lansing, Michigan, and faced the man they said sexually assaulted and abused them under the guise of providing medical care over more than two decades.
“The breadth and ripple of this defendant’s abuse and destruction is nearly infinite,” Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis said in her remarks before the sentencing.
She called on the judge to sentence Nassar to a minimum of 40 years in prison and at least 125 years, calling him “possibly the most prolific child sexual abuser in history.”
In all, 168 impact statements were read, including 156 from victims themselves.
“We were ultimately strong enough to take you down,” Kaylee Lorincz said on Wednesday. “Not one by one, but by an army of survivors. We are Jane Does no more.”
Read the full report at CNN
