Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar stabbed multiple times at Florida federal prison: reports

Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexually abusing female gymnasts, including Olympic medalists, was stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another inmate at a Florida federal prison, according to multiple reports.

Two people familiar with the case told The Associated Press that the attack took place at Coleman Penitentiary on Sunday. People said his condition was stable on Monday.

One of the people said Nassar was stabbed in the back and chest. The prison was understaffed and one of the people familiar with the case said officers assigned to the unit where Nassar was being held were working mandatory overtime.

The people were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack or the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

CBC Sports has not independently verified the reports.

Nassar is serving decades in prison for convictions in state and federal courts. He admitted to sexually assaulting athletes while working at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics in Indianapolis, which trains Olympians. Separately, Nassar pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.

The federal Bureau of Prisons has faced significant staff shortages in recent years, an issue that came into the spotlight when disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in a New York federal prison in 2019. A 2021 Associated Press investigation revealed nearly one-third of federal correctional officer job openings nationwide, forcing prisons to deploy cooks, teachers, nurses and other workers to guard inmates. Staff shortages have hampered emergency response in other prisons, including suicides.

Officers work in unity

On Sunday, both officers who worked in the unit with Nassar worked overtime. One of the officers was on the third shift in a row, working 16 hours a day, one of the people said. And the other officer was on their second shift in a row, the person said.

During victim impact statements in 2018, several athletes testified that over the course of Nassar’s more than two decades of sexual abuse, they told adults, including coaches and athletic trainers, what happened, but went unreported.

More than 100 women, including Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, collectively demanded more than $1 billion US from the federal government for the FBI’s failure to stop Nassar when agents learned of allegations against him in 2015. He was arrested by Michigan State University police in 2016, over a year later.

The Justice Department’s inspector general said in July 2021 that the FBI made “fundamental” mistakes in investigating the sexual assault allegations against Nassar and failed to treat the case with the “utter seriousness”. More athletes said they were harassed before the FBI stepped in.

The Inspector General’s investigation was spurred by allegations that the FBI did not immediately act on complaints filed against Nassar in 2015. USA Gymnastics had conducted its own internal investigation, and the organization’s president at the time, Stephen Penny, reported the allegations to the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis. But it took months for the agency to open a formal investigation.

At least 40 girls and women said they had been abused over a 14-month period, while the FBI was aware of other sexual abuse allegations involving Nassar. USA Gymnastics officials also contacted FBI officials in Los Angeles in May 2016 after eight months of inactivity by agents in Indianapolis.

The FBI acknowledged behavior that was “inexcusable and discrediting” America’s top law enforcement agency.

$500 million paid to 300 women and girls

Michigan State, accused of missing opportunities over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who had been assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee have reached a $380 million settlement.

In June 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a final appeal by Nassar. Lawyers for Nassar said he was unfairly treated in 2018 and deserved a new hearing, based on vindictive comments from a judge who called him a “monster” who would “wither” in prison, much like the Wicked Witch in “The Wizard of Oz”.

“I just signed your death warrant,” Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said of Nassar’s 40-year sentence.

The state Supreme Court said Nassar’s appeal was a “precise question” and that it had “concerns” about the judge’s conduct. But the court also noted that despite her provocative remarks, Aquilina stuck to the sentencing agreement worked out by lawyers in the case.

“We refuse to expend additional judicial resources and further subject the victims in this case to additional trauma where the questions asked are nothing more than an academic exercise,” the court said in a two-page order.

More than 150 victims spoke or made statements at an extraordinary seven-day hearing in Aquilina court more than four years ago.

“It’s over. … Nearly six years after I reported it, it’s finally over,” said Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar.