Larry Nassar
What Was the Accusation?
Larry Nassar, a physician who worked for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, sexually abused girls and young women while presenting the conduct as legitimate medical treatment. Many of the women who later came forward were competitive gymnasts or other athletes who had been referred to Nassar because of his reputation in sports medicine. In November 2017, Nassar pleaded guilty in Ingham County, Michigan, to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. His guilty pleas followed years of allegations that he had used his position as a trusted physician to gain access to patients and sexually assault them during examinations and treatments.
Nassar’s January 2018 sentencing hearing became a major public reckoning over the scale of the abuse. During seven days of proceedings in Lansing, more than 150 women and girls addressed the court about their experiences and the consequences of Nassar’s conduct. Some were elite gymnasts, while others had encountered him through Michigan State University or other athletic settings. On January 24, 2018, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced Nassar to 40 to 175 years in state prison. He had already received a 60-year federal prison sentence in December 2017 for child-pornography and obstruction-of-justice offenses.
Immediately before Aquilina imposed the state sentence, Nassar turned toward the women in the courtroom and delivered a brief statement expressing sorrow. He said that hearing the victim-impact statements had affected him emotionally and acknowledged that his own reaction could not compare with the pain and trauma experienced by the women who had spoken. His statement presented an image of remorse and appeared to accept the seriousness of the harm described during the hearing.
The apparent apology was complicated by a letter Nassar had previously written to Aquilina. After his spoken statement, the judge read portions of that letter aloud in court. In it, Nassar disputed the characterization of his conduct as sexual, portrayed himself as having been manipulated into his guilty pleas, criticized the media’s influence on former patients, and suggested that some accounts about him had been fabricated or sensationalized. One passage invoked the expression “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” The comments produced audible reactions in the courtroom and led Aquilina to question whether Nassar had genuinely accepted responsibility for his conduct.
The case therefore presents a sharp contrast between two forms of image repair delivered in the same sentencing proceeding. Nassar’s oral statement communicated remorse and acknowledged the suffering described by the women who confronted him. His written letter simultaneously denied central aspects of responsibility, emphasized his previous reputation as a physician, criticized accusers and the media, and blamed prosecutors for the wording of his guilty plea. The tension between those messages became a defining feature of the public response to his apology.
Key Apologia Strategies:
Mortification, Denial, Bolstering, Attacking the Accuser
Video
Larry Nassar’s January 24, 2018 statement before sentencing:
Transcript
Larry Nassar’s Sentencing Statement — January 24, 2018:
“It’s just a short statement. Your words these past several days – their words, your words – have had a significant emotional effect on myself and has shaken me to my core. I also recognize that what I am feeling pales in comparison to the pain, trauma, and emotional destruction that all of you are feeling. There are no words that can describe the depth and breadth of how sorry I am for what has occurred. 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.”
Excerpts from Larry Nassar’s Letter to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina — Read by the Judge in Court January 24, 2018:
“The federal judge went ballistic at sentencing since I pled guilty to the state cases and spent 10 percent on the federal case and 90 percent on the state cases and civil suits. She gave me 60 years instead of five to 20 years (three consecutive 20-year sentences). I pleaded guilty to possession of porn from 9/2004 to 12/2004 — four months. The prosecutor even admitted that I never belonged to any porn sites, any chat rooms, was not on the dark web, and also, they could not prove I viewed it. …
“So for four months of porn possession from 2004, I was sentenced to 60 years. Not proper, appropriate, fair. …
“What I did in the state cases was medical, not sexual. But because of the porn, I lost all support, and thus another reason for the state guilty plea. …
“So I tried to avoid a trial to save the stress to this community, my family and the victim. Yet look what is happening. It is wrong.”
“I was a good doctor because my treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised and came back over and over, and referred family and friends to see me. 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. It is just a complete nightmare.”
“The stories that are being fabricated to sensationalize this, then the AG would only accept my plea if I said what I did was not medical and was for my own pleasure. They forced me to say that or they were going to trial and not accepting the plea. I wanted to plead no contest, but the AG refused that. I was so manipulated by the AG and now Aquilina. All I wanted was to minimize stress to everyone, like I wrote earlier.”
“In addition, with the federal case, my medical treatments with the Olympic/national gymnastics were discussed as part of the plea. The FBI investigated them in 2015 and found nothing substantial because it was medical. Now they’re seeking the media attention and financial reward.”