Alleged victims accuse prosecutors of betrayal with Larry Nassar plea bargain

An attoey representing dozens of women who allege they were sexually abused as young girls by former USA Gymnastics women’s Olympic and national team physician Larry Nassar has accused federal prosecutors of betraying those former athletes by agreeing to a plea bargain with Nassar.

Nassar has agreed to plead guilty of federal child poography charges as part of a deal in which federal prosecutors agree not to pursue more serious sex exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of child charges, according to documents related to the case in U.S. District Court.

Nassar on June 23 signed off a draft of an agreement in which he will plead guilty to receiving child poography, possessing child poography and destruction of evidence. His attoey, Matthew Newbury, signed the agreement on July 5, according to a U.S. District Court Weste District of Michigan, Southe Division document.

The document states that court can still make final determinations on how federal sentencing guidelines apply to the case.

Nassar still faces state criminal sexual abuse charges in Michigan and civil lawsuits filed by more than 100 former young gymnasts and other underage athletes who allege Nassar routinely sexually abused them even as they were competing at or training for the Olympic Games and World Championships.

Nassar has been at the center of the largest sexual abuse scandal in American sports history, a controversy in which former U.S. Olympic and World championship team members have accused USA Gymnastics, the sport’s national goveing body, and former U.S. Olympic coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi and other top officials and coaches of creating a culture of abuse within the sport that enabled Nassar’s criminal behavior.

John Manly, an Orange County attoey who represents several of the former gymnasts in civil cases, criticized the deal, charging that prosecutors gave Nassar a break and that the deal sends a dangerous message to Nassar’s alleged victims and their families and future victims of sexual abuse.

“My clients know the FBI has worked very hard on this case,” Manly said. “However many of my clients wonder why the US Attoey would make any deal with Nassar on child poography. I mean what’s his defense? Did someone sneak into his house and download 37,000 images of child po? Why would the Justice Department give him any break? America’s national team and Olympic gymnasts have been told by the US attoeys their cases will not be prosecuted because of this deal. If that’s true that it is stuing betrayal.

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“The Govement is albeit unintentionally sending a message that molesting young athletes while far away from their families and competing for our country will not be taken seriously. These girls and women are the best America has to offer. They and their families deserve justice for what was done to them, not a deal that gives their tormenter a break. I hope that the Justice Department reconsiders any deal that allows Nassar to escape prosecution for molesting these girls.”

Each of the three counts carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000. Nassar also agreed to supervised release after serving time and to register as a sex offender.

Nassar received child poography between September 18 and December 1, 2004, according to court documents. He also possessed between 2003 and 2016 thousands images or vides of child poography, some of which “involved a minor who had not attained 12 years of age,” the plea agreement said. The agreement also alleges Nassar had his computer cleaned on September 19, 2016 at a local computer store. A day later federal agents found his computer hard drives in trash cans Nassar had placed on the street outside his home for collection.

Manly and of Nassar’s alleged victims are frustrated by federal prosecutors include a non-prosecution agreement as part of the deal in which they agree “not to further prosecute” Nassar “for sexual exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of children.”

Those instances, the agreement said, is “related to conduct” that took place in Nassar’s swimming pool in the summer of 2015 involving two minors and “interstate and inteational travel with intent and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.”

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