This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A judge on Friday ordered Larry Nassar, a longtime doctor at Michigan State and USA Gymnastics, to stand trial on charges of sexually assaulting six young gymnasts who said he molested them while they were seeking treatment for various injuries.

Judge Donald Allen Jr made his decision in Mason, Michigan, after hearing testimony from the gymnasts over two days and watching a police interview of Nassar.

“He convinced these girls that this was some type of legitimate treatment,” assistant attorney general Angela Povilaitis told Allen during the hearing. “Why would they question him? Why would they question this gymnastics god?”

The gymnasts consistently said that Nassar penetrated them with his ungloved hands, sometimes while their parents were in the room, at his Michigan State clinic, his home and a Lansing-area gymnastics club. Some allegations go back to 2000.

Nassar was a doctor at Michigan State and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians, until last year.

Prosecutors played a video of a 40-minute interview between campus police and Nassar last summer. He said he doesn’t get sexual pleasure from treating gymnasts but also said that if he had an erection, as a gymnast asserted, “that’s rather embarrassing.”

Nassar is facing three more criminal cases, including one in federal court alleging he possessed child sex abuse images. He has pleaded not guilty. Separately, he is being sued by dozens of women and girls.