Woman Says Gymnastics Doc Molested Her for Years

Larry Nassar will now face criminal charges in addition to multiple civil suits
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 17, 2017 3:35 PM CST
Gymnastics Doc Will Face Criminal Sexual Abuse Charges
Dr. Larry Nassar listens to testimony of a witness during a preliminary hearing Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, in Lansing, Mich.   (Robert Killips/Lansing State Journal via AP)

A former US Gymnastics doctor already facing federal child pornography charges and dozens of civil lawsuits from gymnasts who say he molested them will have to stand trial for criminal sexual conduct, a Michigan judge has ruled. CBS News reports the decision was made after a 25-year-old woman testified against Larry Nassar on Friday. The woman says Nassar, a family friend, sexually abused her between the ages of 6 and 12, according to MLive. The woman says the abuse started with Nassar exposing himself to her, then graduated to rubbing his genitals on her feet and masturbating in front of her during games of hide-and-seek in his basement, NBC News reports. She says the smell of lotion "still makes me sick."

The woman, who also claims Nassar "often" put his fingers inside her vagina, told her parents about the abuse when she was 13, but "they made me feel like I had done something terrible." She says her father promised to ruin her life if she didn't admit she was lying about Nassar, who they remained friends with and continued to visit. The woman's father killed himself last year. Nassar has pleaded not guilty in all the cases against him. On Friday, his lawyer tried to discredit the woman, saying she wasn't emotional enough while discussing the alleged abuse. Nassar's other alleged victims, some of them US Olympians, say he molested them under the guise of performing medical treatments. (More Larry Nassar stories.)

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