Larry Nassar's letter elicits gasps in packed courtroom
LANSING, Mich. -- After Larry Nassar offered a brief apology to the women and girls that he molested, the judge who sentenced him read aloud from a letter that the gymnastics doctor had written to her. Judge Rosemarie Aquilina quoted the letter with disdain and tossed it aside when she was finished.
The audience in the courtroom gallery gasped and groaned upon hearing some of the doctor's comments. Here are a few excerpts as read from the bench:
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"The federal judge went ballistic at sentencing since I pled guilty to the state cases and spent 10 percent on the federal case and 90 percent on the state cases and civil suits. She gave me 60 years instead of five to 20 years. (three consecutive 20-year sentences). I pleaded guilty to possession of porn from 9-2004 to 12-2004 - four months. The prosecutor even admitted that I never belonged to any porn sites, any chatrooms, was not on the dark web and also they could not prove I viewed it. It was all believed of course. I shared my electronics and I could not prove that. So for four months of porn possession from 2004, I was sentenced to 60 years. Not proper, appropriate, fair."
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"What I did in the state cases was medical, not sexual. But because of the porn, I lost all support -- thus another reason for the state guilty plea.
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"So I tried to avoid a trial to save the stress to this community, my family and the victim. Yet look what is happening. It is wrong."
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"I was a good doctor because my treatments worked, and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised and came back over and over, and referred family and friends to see me. The media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad. They feel I broke their trust. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. It is just a complete nightmare. The stories that are being fabricated to sensationalize this.
"Then the AG would only accept my plea if I said what I did was not medical and was for my own pleasure. They forced me to say that or they were going to trial and not accepting the plea. I wanted to plead no contest. But the AG refused that. I was so manipulated by the AG and now Aquilina, and all I wanted was to minimize stress to everyone like I wrote earlier."
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"In addition, with the federal case, my medical treatments with the Olympic/national gymnastics were discussed as part of the plea. The FBI investigated them in 2015 and found nothing substantial because it was medical. Now they're seeking the media attention and financial reward."
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The former Michigan sports doctor, who parlayed his reputation and personal charm into years of sexual abuse of Olympic gymnasts and other young women, was sentenced Wednesday following the riveting statements of more than 150 victims. Aquilina sentenced Larry Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison on the seventh day of a remarkable hearing that has given the girls, young women and their parents a chance to confront Nassar in court.
"I just signed your death warrant," Aquilina said.
"I find that you don't get it -- that you're a danger. You remain a danger," she said.
Aquilina said it was her "honor and privilege" to sentence Nassar.
"Inaction is an action. Silence is indifference. Justice requires action and a voice -- and that is what has happened here in this court," Aquilina said, before announcing the sentence.