A new lawsuit accuses Larry Nassar, the doctor who worked for Michigan State University and the national gymnastics team and who was sentenced to up to 175 years for multiple criminal sexual assaults, of drugging, sexually assaulting and impregnating a 17-year-old MSU field hockey player in 1992.
The woman, Erika Davis, filed the lawsuit against Nassar and a dozen other defendants (including Michigan State’s board of trustees, former sports medicine officials, U.S.A. Gymnastics and other coaches) on Monday in the United States District Court in Michigan. The lawsuit claims that the defendants knew about the abuse but failed to stop it.
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In the lawsuit, which names other unidentified plaintiffs, Davis says said that she was advised by her field hockey coach to see Nassar after she twisted her knee during hockey. During her treatment, he asked her whether she had ever had a vaginal exam and then told her to remove her bra. The suit says he fondled her breasts while a man with a camera, who Nassar told her was doing research, filmed. He told her to return in a week for a “full female exam,” according to the lawsuit.
During that second exam, Nassar “crushed up a pill and made Plaintiff Erika drink it” as a camera was recording, the lawsuit says. Davis “got so tired and could not move her arms.” Later, when she was less woozy, “Plaintiff Erika witnessed Defendant Nassar raping her.”
The lawsuit says that Davis, who had never experienced intercourse, experienced “tremendous pain” after the rape.
She reported what happened to her coach, Martha Ludwig, who confronted Nassar and demanded the tape from him. But George Perles, who was the athletic director at Michigan State at the time and is now a trustee, allegedly intervened and forced her to return the video.
Ludwig was told to resign as the field hockey coach and sign a nondisclosure agreement, according to the lawsuit.
“Given the response by defendants to Plaintiff Erika’s complaints, it is clear that defendant M.S.U. was aware and/or had notice that Defendant Nassar sexually assaulted other girls, children and/or young women,” the suit says.
Davis became pregnant and miscarried. She reported the rape to the Michigan State police in 1992, the lawsuit says, but a detective told her that his “hands were tied” and that she had to report it to the athletic department. The school also revoked Davis’ scholarship.
The lawsuit goes on to claim that Michigan State “could have prevented hundreds of young girls and women from being sexually assaulted by Defendant Nassar had they only acted appropriately, decently and lawfully in 1992.”
The lawsuit, which claims assault and battery of Davis along with allegations of negligence, failure to report child abuse and fraud, seeks a jury trial and damages.
Michigan State said that the lawsuit incorrectly depicts how sexual assault claims are handled at the university.
“While the protocols and procedures mentioned in this lawsuit do not reflect how sexual assault claims are handled at M.S.U., we are taking the allegations very seriously and looking into the situation,” it said in a statement.
The lawsuit repeats the allegations brought upon Nassar earlier this year by hundreds of young women, mostly gymnasts, when they gave victim impact statements about sexual abuse suffered at his hands during two sentencing hearings.
A lawyer for U.S.A. Gymnastics said that it’s not clear why the organization was included as a defendant in the suit.
D. Andrew Portinga, a U.S.A. Gymnastics lawyer, said in an email to The New York Times that Davis “does not allege that she was a member of U.S.A. Gymnastics, that she reported her abuse to U.S.A.G., or that she had any connection with U.S.A.G. It is not clear why U.S.A.G. is named as a defendant in this lawsuit.”
