Former MSU students say William Strampel had a history of lewd behavior

LANSING - William Strampel began a meeting in the spring of 2010 by announcing that he’d been told he wasn’t allowed to refer to students in the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine as his children anymore.

“Except Breanna’s baby,” Strampel said, indicating Bre O’Keefe, a medical student who was then seven months pregnant. “That’s my kid.”

That’s how O’Keefe remembers it. She calls it “one of the most humiliating moments of my life.” Strampel was the dean of the college. Several classmates asked her if what he said was true. It wasn't.

To make matters worse, the meeting was also telecast to the college's satellite sites across the state, she recalled.

Strampel was arrested Monday night and charged the following day with felony misconduct in office, fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and two other misdemeanors.

He faces the misconduct in office charge, according to an affidavit filed in support of charges, because he "used his office to harass, discriminate, demean, sexually proposition and sexually assault female students."

Strampel's actions during and after former MSU sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar's 2014 Title IX investigation resulted in two misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty, according to the affidavit.

He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Four women also told investigators that Strampel either groped them or made sexually inappropriate comments and appeared to offer them favorable treatment in exchange for sexual acts. Investigators also say they found pornographic images on Strampel's computer that appeared to be "selfies" from MSU students.

But two former students say Strampel's "creepy" reputation was well known among students at the college.

Nicole Eastman, who is publicly identifying herself as victim #4 in the criminal case against Strampel, said Strampel had groped her during the college's annual ball in 2010.

She was set to graduate later that year, and told police investigators earlier this year she worried Strampel could have derailed her entire medical career.

"It was accepted behavior at MSU," she said.

Strampel, through his attorney John Dakmak, has denied inappropriately touching anyone and any "quid pro quo for sexual favors in exchange for any type of standing within the university's medical school."

Dakmak also said Strampel, who served as dean of the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine from 2002 until December of last year when he stepped down for medical reasons, never had romantic or sexual relationships with students.

Neither Dakmak nor Strampel responded to requests for comment made Thursday.

More:

Who is William Strampel? Facts about ex-MSU dean's career and the allegations he faces

Court records: Former MSU dean William Strampel sexually harassed students, had pornography on university computer

Strampel's inappropriate nature was almost a running joke among students, O'Keefe said. Only, it wasn't funny.

The fall prior to the 2010 meeting, O’Keefe sent an email to Strampel, asking for a meeting to discuss what could be done about her impending clinical placement. Newly pregnant and living in the Lansing area, she didn’t want to be away shortly after giving birth to her daughter.

Strampel agreed to meet but wrote in response that O’Keefe should wear a low-cut top if she wanted to get what she was asking for.

Strampel spent the meeting berating O’Keefe for asking for special consideration. When she received a clinical placement in Detroit, she asked for a second meeting.

She and her then-husband attended the second meeting with Strampel. The dean told the couple that spending two years apart during clinics would be good for their marriage. Strampel told them that the only time he saw his wife during the early years of their marriage was to get her pregnant.

The couple left the meeting shaken. O’Keefe couldn’t believe Strampel would talk about his wife that way.

Fortunately for O'Keefe, she got a placement with Sparrow Health Systems after another student dropped.

“I had very little interaction with him after,” O’Keefe said. “I saw him at a local wedding, and I intentionally avoided him.”

Timeline: Michigan State and its handling of sexual assault cases

She couldn’t avoid Strampel at her graduation ceremony in 2012. Shaking her hand, Strampel complimented the red heels O’Keefe was wearing. He said they made her legs look good, O'Keefe said.

“This is the final moment of medical school,” she remembers thinking. “I’m getting my diploma and that’s what you say to me?"

Strampel had set off Eastman's creep radar early in her time as a medical student. At a free flu-shot clinic hosted by the college, he talked to her about drinking, she told investigators, and said how “it was good when women were drunk, because then it was easy to have sex with them.”

She was also troubled by his boastful tone as he talked about another medical student who was caught cheating pleading with him in his office.

"It was as if he enjoyed that position of power and her vulnerability in that situation," Eastman said.

After being groped by Strampel at the college's ball in 2010, Eastman said, she didn't think there was anybody she could talk to.

Two other faculty members were in a position to see the groping incident but said nothing about it, Eastman said.

She was prompted to come forward after seeing the survivors of abuse at Nassar's hands testify in Ingham County earlier this year. She reached out to Rachael Denhollander, the Kentucky woman who was first to publicly accuse Nassar of sexual assault.

Eventually, she shared emails and correspondence from Strampel to Denhollander, who forwarded it to the Michigan Attorney General's Office, which was investigating how the university handled Nassar. Then Eastman was contacted by a detective sergeant from the Michigan State Police.

"With the climate we’re in now, people shouldn’t fear coming forward and sharing what happened to them," Eastman said.

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.