More than 50 people file new suits against Nassar, MSU as deadline looms

David Jesse | Detroit Free Press

When she heard Jordyn Wieber give a victim impact statement during Larry Nassar's sentencing in January, Becca Bovine was struck by how Wieber was summing up exactly how Bovine felt.

So Bovine told her parents and husband by text that she had also been sexually assaulted by Nassar, but wasn't ready to talk about it. She and her family later attended more victim impact statements and Bovine, now an adult, made one herself in Eaton County court proceedings.

Now she's among more than 50 women to file new lawsuits against Nassar and his employers, including Michigan State University, since the original wave of lawsuits was settled by MSU in mid-May. MSU officials said in a court filing Friday they have been notified by several others that suits are coming.

Bovine has a simple message for others who are still holding abuse by Nassar secret.

"There are hundreds of other people who will support you," she said.

But she has a warning — if victims want to file a lawsuit, they have to do so quickly — there's a Sept. 10 deadline.

"It's a real source of concern. People might not know that there is a window closing. Survivors need to be informed and aware of their options," said Royal Oak attorney Megan Bonanni. Bonanni is representing Bovine and other Nassar survivors.

Law change and a deadline

After Nassar's sentencing, Michigan lawmakers started a push to change a series of laws, including one that said people sexually assaulted as minors, should they choose to sue, must do so before they turn 19.

Eventually, lawmakers — despite protests from the state's universities, the chamber of commerce and the Catholic Church — changed the law to allow people who were sexually abused as children to sue until their 28th birthdays or three years from when they realized they had been abused. Victims of Nassar, the now-imprisoned former sports doctor who worked for MSU and USA Gymnastics, got a 90-day window to sue retroactively. That window runs out Sept. 10.

As of Friday, 23 new suits had been filed. The first lawsuits that were settled had more than 300 victims. A number of the latest lawsuits, like in the first wave, have been filed anonymously.

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There are a lot of reasons for why Nassar survivors haven't come forward until now, said Gary Bender, an Okemos attorney who is representing Nassar survivors who have filed in this second wave.

"They were scared," Bender said. "They didn't understand their options. They really need to pay attention now and at least talk through their options."

Bonanni agreed.

"They are living in the shadows, trying to come to terms with what happened," she said. "They could just really be coming to terms now."

Erin Blayer, a 16-year-old soccer player who says she was sexually assaulted by Nassar, understands what people are going through. She had a hard time as she listened to various survivors coming forward.

"I didn't want to believe it," she told the Free Press recently. "It definitely helped hearing all the other (women) coming forward. The majority who came forward were gymnasts. I was a soccer player. I wanted to come forward to let people know it wasn't just gymnasts."

Blayer ended up giving a victim impact statement during Nassar's sentencing in Eaton County.

"Larry, while you are rotting away in jail, your crimes will still be in effect as we try to erase (you from our lives)," she said. "There's nothing that could have prepared (me) for what me and the other women have endured."

She had hoped to get closure from delivering the 10-minute statement. She didn't, though she is doing better now.

"Where I am now is definitely a lot better than in January," she said, adding she missed more than 50 days in the last school year and "shut myself" out from social events. "It was so hard. I still have days where I just want to stay on the couch, but I have a great support system."

A group of 17 law firms put together a website for Nassar survivors who haven't yet filed lawsuits and are looking for information. The site includes links to news coverage and each of the 17 firms' websites.

What's next?

What ultimately happens when the suits are filed is still up in the air, Bender said.

"This is an unique situation," he said. "I've never seen this before."

MSU signed a settlement with the existing plaintiffs in mid-May, agreeing to pay out $425 million for 333 identified victims.

MSU plans to pay for that by issuing bonds and settling insurance claims.

But that's run into snags as well — with MSU recently filing suit in county court in an effort to get the insurance companies to pay up.

“We are suing our carriers, including our largest carrier, United Educators, for failing to honor their policies,” Robert Young, general counsel for MSU, said in a statement when the suit was filed. “It is disappointing and unfortunate we have to go to court on this matter, but we are hopeful this lawsuit will bring us to speedy resolution and that the insurance companies will honor their contractual obligations.”

The lawsuit lays out a case that the university did all it could to meet the terms of its insurance policies, only to have the companies refuse to pay claims. The lawsuit says the companies, including United Educators, actively promoted providing insurance for cases such as these.

It goes on to say that it's not just that the insurance companies won't pay — it's that they don't believe MSU has any legitimate claim.

The companies "have not acknowledged their contractual coverage obligations, they have refused to acknowledge even the potential for coverage under their respective policies," the suit says, adding no insurance company has paid any money to MSU.

Retired Judge William Bettinelli is in charge of the process of dividing up that $425 million to the first-wave victims. The settlement doesn't say how much the victims' attorneys will be paid, instead noting that it is up to whatever agreement they signed with their attorneys.

MSU set aside another $75 million for those victims who potentially would come later.

According to court records, MSU can use 8 percent of that $75 million for legal defense of the second-wave suits. That's $6 million.

The rest of the $75 million is "to be used, if necessary, by MSU, at its discretion, to resolve any future claims, with any remainder to be distributed to the original 333 Plaintiffs," according to documents filed in federal court in early July.

But there's a catch.

"We're not bound by that $75-million agreement," Bender said. "We didn't sign anything."

Each of the new cases will be evaluated separately, MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant told the Free Press.

On Friday, MSU asked the courts to hit pause on all the suits — allowing new ones to be filed but no other action to be taken — until it had the chance to sort through the cases. In the court filing, the university said it could be several months before that is done.

A pause "will provide MSU much-needed time to fund the settlement, assess the newly filed claims, and engage in settlement discussions with new plaintiffs, where appropriate," MSU said in its filing. "Allowing MSU sufficient time to examine and potentially resolve these cases without protracted litigation is in the best interests of all parties and the Court."

MSU added the delay would allow time to potentially settle those cases with legitimate claims.

"Cases filed after September 10, 2018, and cases that are incapable of early resolution, however, would be subject to motions to dismiss," MSU said in its court filing.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj