By Julie Mack and Emily Lawler | MLive.com

Feb, 8, 2017

For two decades he was a household name in the gymnastic community, a star in sports medicine and a sought-after physician at Michigan State University.

He treated top athletes such as Kerri Strug and Jordyn Wieber, and had a stellar reputation for sports-injury prevention and athlete rehab. He was the team doctor for U.S. gymnasts at four Olympics. He was beloved for his warm and disarming manner, which put even shy teenage girls at ease.

If there was a dark side to Dr. Larry Nassar, almost nobody saw it.

His golden career has come crashing down in the past five months. Today, Nassar is in federal custody on receipt and possession of child pornography charges, and faces three charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a family friend allegedly abused from the age of 6 until she was 12. Dozens of other women have filed criminal and/or civil complaints alleging sexual abuse or other misconduct dating back to at least 1994 and continuing into 2016. All the alleged victims, in both the criminal and civil cases, are women.

"It's Penn State all over again," alleges Brian McKeen, a Detroit attorney representing one of the women. "You have the same kind of institutional failures, involving multiple victims violated by a trusted staffer."

Nassar, 53, has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. His attorney, Matthew Newburg, declined comment for this story and neither Nassar nor his attorney have responded in court documents to the civil lawsuits.

That it took so long to thoroughly investigate the accusations around Nassar remains one of the most troubling aspects of the burgeoning sex scandal, say victims and their lawyers interviewed by MLive.

Over the years, some of Nassar's alleged victims say they were telling parents, coaches, counselors, MSU athletic trainers - even police -- that, without consent or explanation, Nassar was digitally penetrating them in the vagina and anus during medical treatments for back, hip and other injuries.

Yet again and again, the women's accounts were viewed with skepticism, the women claim.

"I feel like I didn't do a good job protecting those who came after me," said Tiffany Thomas Lopez, who says she was abused in 1999 and 2000 while she was a softball player at MSU. "But I did speak up, on more than one occasion."

It's not just Nassar's reputation at stake. Also engulfed in the controversy are MSU, where Nassar was a faculty member and practitioner at MSU's sports-medicine clinic from 1997 until he was fired last September; USA Gymnastics, the sport's national governing body, where Nassar started as an athletic trainer in 1986 and served as chief medical coordinator and U.S. team doctor from 1996 to 2015, and Twistars, a high-profile USA Gymnastics training facility in the Lansing area, which referred athletes to Nassar.

All three organizations are named as co-defendants in some of the lawsuits. MSU, the only entity to employ Nassar, denied the university had knowledge of any complaints prior to 2014 and said it had not protected Nassar, according to MSU spokesman Jason Cody. In an email to members of the MSU community, university President Lou Anna K. Simon addressed the allegations, and said MSU has taken a "proactive approach."

The plaintiffs: Accusers alleging abuse in lawsuits

Among the missed opportunities to address alleged complaints involving Nassar:

* In late 1997 or mid-1998, a gymnast alleges she complained to MSU gymnastics coach Kathie Klages, while the gymnast was part of a youth gymnastics program Klages instructed, according to the gymnast's allegations in the lawsuit. The gymnast, a teenager at the time, claims in the lawsuit she was 'concerned' about Nassar's treatments. Klages discouraged her from filing a formal complaint and informed Nassar of the conversation, according to the court filing. Klages did not return requests for comment.

* In 1997, a parent complained to Twistars owner John Geddert about Nassar's medical treatments, according to one lawsuit. Geddert not only failed to investigate, but continued to recommend Nassar as a physician, the suit claims.

* In 1999, a MSU track and cross country runner told a staff member of the athletic program and athletic trainers that Nassar was penetrating her vagina during treatment for an injured hamstring, according to her lawsuit, which identifies her as Jane X Doe. The suit alleges the coach and trainers told her that Nassar was "an Olympic doctor" and "knew what he was doing."

* In 1999 and again in 2000, when Lopez was a MSU softball player, she told three MSU athletic trainers that Nassar was sexually inappropriate during medical treatments, Lopez told MLive. Three trainers dismissed her concerns, and one of them told Lopez that she should feel grateful to be treated by a world-renowned doctor, Lopez said.

* In 2000, Racheal Denhollander says she was abused by Nassar when she was a 15-year-old Kalamazoo gymnast treated at MSU's sports-medicine clinic. When she told a Kalamazoo-area gymnastic coach about the alleged abuse two years later, the coach suggested Denhollander keep quiet, Denhollander said. (MLive does not normally name alleged victims in sex-abuse cases, but Denhollander and Lopez are allowing their names to be used.)

* In 2004, the family friend in Nassar's criminal assault case told a counselor about the alleged abuse, according to an Ingham County court document. The counselor had the 12-year-old girl and her parents meet with Nassar, who denied the allegations, and the girl's parents forced her to recant; the girl later told "multiple therapists and counselors" about the abuse, the document says. There is no record of anyone calling law enforcement about the allegations, although state law mandates mental-health counselors to report child sexual abuse.

* In 2004, a criminal complaint was filed with Meridian Township police by a Nassar patient alleging sexual abuse. Police are not commenting now on why they closed the case without seeking criminal charges.

* In 2014, a second police report filed by a different woman with MSU police alleged abuse during medical treatment. The case was referred to the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office, which declined to press charges after they recognized it as a legitimate medical procedure.

* In the summer of 2015, USA Gymnastics quietly cut ties with Nassar after hearing of "athlete concerns." But MSU says it was never told of those concerns, and Nassar continued to practice at MSU's sports clinic for another year, as well as treating girls from Twistars and Holt High School.

Kiki Wixsom, director of the Twistars DeWitt facility, said Nassar "has never been an employee with Twistars" and said she was not allowed to comment further. Owner John Geddert did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Holt Public Schools officials said they ended Nassar's contract in September 2016 when they first heard about allegations of sexual abuse from news reports. Superintendent Dave Hornak said student athletes were encouraged to report any misconduct, but to his knowledge no Holt students have come forward with complaints against Nassar.

USA Gymnastics said in a statement the organization contacted the FBI "immediately" in 2015 after they learned of allegations and relieved Nassar of duties, but declined further comment.

Denhollander said she hesitated to contact police for more than 15 years because "I was 100 percent confident that I would not be believed."

Nassar "was (MSU's) golden boy. He was USAG's golden boy," she said. "He was so loved in the community that I was very sure ... I would be crucified and he would end up empowered to know he couldn't get caught.

"What breaks my heart more than anything," she said, "is that all these women who came forward and did what I didn't do, that's exactly what happened to them."

Denhollander finally came forward in August 2016 after she read an Indianapolis Star expose on USA Gymnastics' alleged mishandling of sexual-abuse allegations.

Nassar wasn't mentioned in the Star's August 2016 report. But Denhollander thought the investigation offered an opportunity to bring Nassar to justice.

She contacted the Indianapolis Star and the police, which led to a Sept. 12 news story which Denhollander and another woman, a former Olympic medalist, detailed their alleged abuse by Nassar. The story sparked a flood of criminal and civil complaints from other Nassar patients.

To date, at least 50 women have filed criminal complaints, which are being investigated by MSU police and the Michigan Attorney General's office, and at least 26 women have filed lawsuits. There are also 10 Title IX complaints against MSU. Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on gender, and in part, requires schools that take federal funds to take immediate action to address sexual violence.

18 more sue doctor, MSU, USA gymnastics Simon said in her message that MSU is conducting a internal review, and complying with law enforcement requests.

"While the investigations continue, one fact appears clear. Based on the dozens of criminal complaints made against Nassar to MSU Police and the criminal charges brought against him by the Michigan Attorney General and federal U.S. Attorney's Office, Nassar abused the trust of his patients and his professional responsibility as a physician," she wrote.

"At this point, Larry Nassar has more victims than Jerry Sandusky," the abuser in the Penn State case, alleged John Manly, one of the attorneys working with 20 of Nassar's accusers, Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual conduct related to 10 victims; and Penn State has paid settlements to 33 victims who filed civil complaints.

Manly said it's not just Nassar who needs to answer for what happened.

"This was all avoidable, if someone had just taken action back in 1997 when this was first reported," Manly said.

"When you've got a 17- or 18-year-old girl telling coaches and trainers that a doctor is putting his hand inside her vagina for 30 to 40 minutes without a glove or lubrication, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure you that you need to report that," he said.

'Top of his profession'

Nassar first became an athletic trainer while attending North Farmington High School, where he graduated in 1981.

In this July 15, 2008, file photo, Larry Nassar, D.O., or Doctor of Osteopathy, works with a patient in East Lansing, MI. (Becky Shink/Lansing State Journal via AP, File)

He was especially drawn to gymnasts. "What they did with their bodies and what they went through was amazing to me," he said in a 2012 story in Greater Lansing Sport magazine.

Nassar received his kinesiology degree from University of Michigan in 1985; graduated from MSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1993; and did a four-year residency in family and sports medicine at St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing.

Meanwhile, Nassar began volunteering with USA Gymnastics in 1986, starting out as an athletic trainer for the U.S. national team. He filled similar roles for MSU football and at Twistars.

In 1996, Nassar, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, was named chief medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics and became the team doctor for U.S. gymnasts at the Olympics in Atlanta. It was still unpaid, volunteer work, but the experience and exposure were priceless.

Nassar "may be young, but he's just risen to the top of his profession," MSU said in a 1996 press release.

When he finished his residency in 1997, Nassar joined the MSU faculty, an appointment that included teaching, seeing patients at MSU's sports-medicine clinics and serving as team doctor to various MSU athletic teams, primarily women's gymnastics and crew.

"He is eager and dynamic and appears to have exceptional interpersonal skills," said a memo recommending his appointment from his MSU personnel file. "He is well-known and respected nationally and internationally in the field of Sports Medicine."

Nassar's MSU personnel file, obtained by MLive under the Freedom of Information Act, shows Nassar continued to get high marks over the next 20 years.

A 2013 job evaluation noted his dedication, compassion, and "tireless commitment" to his specialty within the gymnastic community.

Six times, Nassar was voted National Contributor of the Year by the Elite Gymnastics Coaches Association. In 2012, he received the Alumnus of the Year Award from the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine. He was lauded for starting a gymnastic program for autistic children.

Nassar also was a high-profile community figure, especially in Holt, where he lived with his wife, a physician assistant, and their three children. Nassar taught catechism classes at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in East Lansing, was team doctor at Holt High School and ran for the Holt school board this past fall.

After Nassar was fired in September, he sent an email to his supervisor at MSU.

"I am so sorry that this situation has been so public in the media casting such a shadow over myself and MSU," Nassar wrote. "I understand your position and appreciate all the support you have given me. My heart is breaking but I will stay strong in my Faith and with the support of my family and my friends I will overcome this."

Larry Nassar timeline: Key moments

'Something really weird'

Of the sex-abuse allegations made public against Nassar, the earliest involves a former Olympic gymnast who filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles.

To protect her anonymity, the lawsuit lists the woman as Jane JD Doe. She is described as a bronze medalist in the 2000 Olympics.

She first came into contact with Nassar in 1994, as an adolescent competing with the U.S. national team, the lawsuit says. While treating her injuries, the suit says, Nassar groped her body and made "inappropriate" conversation about sex.

Nassar then moved on to "intravaginal adjustments" - treatments involving vaginal and anal penetration, performed without gloves or lubricant and without a third party in the room, the lawsuit says. Some of these treatments occurred in her hotel room while traveling for competitions, including a trip to China, according to the suit, which alleges the abuse continued through 2000.

The lawsuit doesn't say whether Jane JD Doe told anyone before filing her lawsuit in September 2016.

Meanwhile, Lopez and another MSU student athlete each say they told MSU trainers in 1999 that Nassar was doing vaginal penetration during medical treatment, according to their lawsuit.

Lopez said she was a MSU freshman on the softball team in spring 1999 when she saw Nassar for a lower back injury.

During a treatment with a female athletic trainer in the room, Nassar digitally penetrated her vagina, Lopez said. She later asked the trainer about it.

"She reassured me that this is what he was supposed to be doing, and this was going to help me to play pain free," Lopez said.

The penetration was repeated over multiple treatments in the spring of 1999 and 2000, she said. "He would insert his fingers, and it was in and out. My trainer described it as a kind of massage to help the bone."

Initially, Lopez trusted Nassar and the trainer. But Lopez said she felt "very uncomfortable" about the procedure, adding Nassar did not use a glove, explain the procedure or get consent.

In her sophomore year she had a new trainer, with whom she discussed the issue in more detail. Lopez said she also told another member of the athletic training department.

Lopez told that person that Nassar's treatments weren't providing relief for her back pain and she was feeling more and more uncomfortable.

Lopez said she was told she could file a complaint against Nassar, but "I was really encouraged not to," Lopez said.

"At the end of the conversation, I remember her reminding me that he was a world-renowned doctor who treated elite athletes," Lopez said.

Lopez didn't file a complaint, but she stopped seeing Nassar.

"I left school feeling something was not right, even though they said it was OK," said Lopez, who is now 32 and living in California. "I never forgot about Dr. Nassar, and I always wondered if there was someone else out there like me, who went through something really weird."

What really bothers her now, she says, is the feeling of guilt that she could have put a stop to it if she had been more forceful. But she also blames MSU.

"As far as Michigan State goes, I do feel they need to be held accountable," she said.

MSU spokesman Jason Cody said the university is conducting an internal investigation.

"We are talking to all relevant people, we are looking into this and to date we have found no evidence" that any complaints were brought to MSU before 2014, Cody said.

Police called twice

Criminal complaints were brought before police at least twice. Neither investigation resulted in charges being filed.

The first occurred in 2004, when a report was filed with Meridian Township police by a 16-year old student athlete, claiming Nassar touched her vagina and breasts, according to a lawsuit. Police confirm the existence of the report, which was closed without charges being sought, but say it cannot be released because of the current criminal investigation.

Meridian Township police did not notify MSU of the complaint, Cody said. And neither did Nassar, according to a Sept. 16, 2016 letter the university sent him notifying him of a potential dismissal.

A similar complaint was filed with MSU police in 2014, where an MSU athlete claimed Nassar "cupped her buttocks, massaged her breast and vaginal area and became sexually aroused" while treating her hip pain, according to a lawsuit.

Larry Nassar

Nassar was suspended during the 2014 police investigation, and the case was forwarded to the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office. That office determined Nassar's treatment was medically legitimate.

The prosecutor's office was swayed to drop the case after seeing a video demonstrating the medical legitimacy of Nassar's procedures, said Gretchen Whitmer, who served as interim Ingham County prosecutor for the second half of 2016. The prosecutor in 2014 was Stuart Dunnings, who resigned in March 2016 amid charges of his own sexual misconduct.

In her lawsuit, the woman said, MSU's investigative report omitted Nassar's arousal and the fact that she had to physically remove his hand from her body. MSU officials declined to comment on that accusation.

Moreover, three women allege Nassar appeared sexually aroused during the procedure, and seven of the 26 women who filed lawsuits said Nassar massaged or otherwise touched their breasts during a treatment, according to court documents.

One result of the 2014 complaint: MSU established protocols for intravaginal procedures performed by Nassar.

According to a memo in Nassar's personnel file, he was told he needed to have a third party in the room when doing "anything close to a sensitive area"; he needed to minimize skin-to-skin contact in "these regions"; and he needed to explain such treatments in detail to the third party.

No other doctors at MSU do any intravaginal sports-medicine procedures, according to Cody.

Forced to recant?

The same year Nassar was questioned by Meridian Township police, he also was contacted by a counselor with a 12-year-old client alleging abuse, according to court documents.

That client is the alleged victim in criminal sexual conduct charges filed by the state against Nassar in November.

According to a transcript of that Nov. 21 hearing seeking an arrest warrant for Nassar, MSU Detective Sgt. Andrea Munford said the victim is a now 24-year-old woman whose parents were close friends with the Nassars.

Starting in 1998 when she was 6-years-old, Munford testified, "Nassar exposed his erect penis to her in the basement," and told the girl "she could see it or touch it whenever she wanted."

For the next five years Nassar repeatedly exposed himself to the girl, masturbated in front of her, rubbed his penis against her feet and digitally penetrated her vagina, according to testimony.

The girl eventually told her parents, who took her to a counselor, Munford said. The counselor arranged for meeting between Nassar, the parents and the girl.

"Nassar denied the allegation, and (the girl's) parents decided they didn't believe her," Munford testified. Eventually, they made her recant her allegations.

But since then, Munford testified, the girl has "recanted her recantation many times," including to "multiple therapists and counselors, even saying his name to them."

'Athlete concerns'

Larry Nassar, right, carries an athlete off of the mat during practice for the U.S. Olympic gymnastic trials in Philadelphia on June 18, 2008, i. (Rob Carr / Associated Press)

In 2015, USA Gymnastics quietly cut ties with Nassar amid unspecified "athlete concerns."

Nassar was part of USAG for almost 30 years, including 19 as the organization's chief medical coordinator and team doctor for the U.S. national team. That included accompanying U.S. gymnasts to the 1996, 2000, 2008 and 2012 Olympics; Nassar didn't go to the 2004 games because of the birth of his daughter.

"When USA Gymnastics learned of athlete concerns about Dr. Nassar in the summer of 2015, we immediately notified the FBI and relieved Nassar of any further assignments," the USAG said in a statement in response to MLive questions.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice office said federal officials are not commenting on the Nassar investigation, including when or if the FBI was contacted by USA Gymnastics.

Cody said USA Gymnastics did not tell Michigan State in 2015 about allegations involving Nassar, who continued seeing patients at MSU for a year after he left the USAG.

Nassar wasn't suspended at MSU until late August 2016, shortly after Denhollander filed a police report. As more complaints flooded in, Nassar was fired three weeks later.

The official reason for his termination, according to his personnel file: Nassar failed

to follow the protocols established after in 2014 investigation.

"The MSU Police has received two new patient complaints which post-date these directives," a Sept. 16 letter to Nassar from the university states. "Both individuals allege that you performed the procedure at issue without gloves, without another member of the medical staff in the room, and without providing an explanation of the procedure. ..."

Culture of enablement?

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has spoken forcefully of the need to investigate Nassar, calling him a "predator."

Schuette said Nassar is the only focus of the criminal investigation, and the attorney general has praised MSU's handling of the situation.

The bulk of the criminal complaints - which involve Nassar's work treating women at MSU or in venues overseen by USAG Gymnastics - remain under investigation by MSU police and the attorney general's office.

But the long list of alleged victims over a 22-year period is infuriating to Lopez and Denhollander and their lawyers, who feel Nassar could and should have been stopped long ago.

"This whole epidemic of sexual abuse was entirely preventable," McKeen said. "It should have been stopped after the first athlete made a report. It certainly should have stopped after a second athlete made a report."

Whitmer acknowledges that "in retrospect, I think a lot of people in the community, you know, are analyzing actions that maybe should have been different."

Alleged victims say the people they told about their experiences deferred to his medical expertise.

"The way they would speak about Dr. Nassar, it was like he was a god almost," Lopez said.

Doctors may feel protected by their status in a community -- which is all the more reason accusations of sexual misconduct against them must be taken seriously, said Laura Palumbo, communications director with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

"Patients and communities place a great deal of trust in medical providers, and it's alarming to consider appropriate investigations and sanctions may not have been pursued," Palumbo said.

Denhollander is particularly scathing about those who she feels enabled Nassar.

"None of the adults who could have stopped Nassar, before he got to me and before he got to these other women, none of them did what they should have done," Denhollander said. "Pedophiles are only as good as the people who surround them. And Nassar was surrounded by some people who were very willing to put other things above the protection of children."

Lauren Gibbons contributed to the reporting. Interactive graphics and layout by Scott Levin