Former USA Gymnastics Doctor, Larry Nassar, Sentenced to 175 Years for Sex Crimes

Former USA Gymnastics Doctor, Larry Nassar, Sentenced to 175 Years for Sex Crimes

Disgraced former USA Gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, has been sentenced to 175 years for his sex crimes.

This is coming after seven days of a court listening to more than 160 girls, women and parents describe the impact of his sexual abuse.

Larry Nassar had turned to the courtroom on Wednesday and quietly attempted an apology, saying,

“There are no words that can describe the depth and breadth for how sorry I am for what has occurred.”

Your words these past several days, your words, have had a significant emotional effect on myself and has shaken me to my core,’ he mumbled through tears.

‘I also realize what I’m feeling pales in comparison.’

‘I will carry your words with me for the rest of my days.’

Then Judge Rosemarie Aquilina read from a letter Nassar wrote last week in which he expressed very different sentiments.

In the letter, Nassar complained about the length of his sentencing hearing, maintained that his touching of patients was legitimate medical therapy and termed some of the alleged victims’ accounts “fabricated.”

As Aquilina read excerpts, some in the courtroom gasped.

“My treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised me,” Aquilina said as she read Nassar’s words.

“. . . The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. . . . Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

The judge then addressed Nassar directly.

“It was not treatment what you did; it was not medical,” Aquilina replied.

“I wouldn’t send my dogs to you, sir.”

Finally, Aquilina delivered her sentence — a minimum of 40 years, a maximum of 175 years in Michigan state prison — effectively guaranteeing a life sentence for the 54-year-old former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics team physician, who also faces a 60-year sentence for federal child pornography crimes.

“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” she said.

And with that, the judge brought an end to an extraordinary sentencing hearing that introduced fresh national attention and outrage to a case whose core facts have been well established for nearly a year.

Originally expected to take four days and feature 88 statements, the hearing ultimately spanned seven days and including testimony from 156 accusers, as dozens more women — many emboldened by the sight of the cathartic impact the statements appeared to have on others — came forward wishing to confront Nassar.

They told of the shattered psyches, the suicide attempts and the torturous guilt that resulted from Nassar’s abuse, which typically involved him, under the guise of pain therapy, slipping his hand under their clothes and penetrating, probing and fondling them.