The United States Department of Justice has reached a $138.7 million settlement deal with about 100 victims of disgraced former U.S. women’s gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.
Announced on Tuesday, April 23, the settlement addresses their claims against the FBI for its months-long failure to properly investigate allegations of Nassar’s sexual abuse against female gymnasts and patients.
“For decades, Lawrence Nassar abused his position, betraying the trust of those under his care and medical supervision while skirting accountability,” Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer said in a statement.
“These allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset. While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing.”
According to ABC News, when the settlement is finalized, it will resolve 139 tort claims against the DOJ and the FBI filed in 2022 by athletes and patients who’d reported abuse by Nassar without getting a proper response. The athletes include Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, and Houston resident Simone Biles.
Combined, their claims totaled about $1 billion in damages.
In seeking these claims, victims of Nassar applied the Federal Tort Claims Act, a law enacted in 1946. It provides a legal means for compensating individuals who have suffered personal injury, death, property loss or property damage due to the negligent or wrongful act or omission of an employee of the federal government.
The claims were filed after the DOJ declined 3 times to pursue criminal charges against FBI agents whom the DOJ’s inspector general determined had failed to properly investigate allegations of abuse by Nassar.
A watchdog report found that the FBI was notified of Nassar’s behavior but then failed to act for more than 14 months, a period during which Nassar is alleged to have abused at least 40 more girls and women.
Nassar sentenced to more than 100 years in prison
Nassar pleaded guilty in 2017 in connection with crimes against several victims, and he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography and other charges. In 2018, he again pleaded guilty, this time to multiple counts of sexual assault of minors, and was sentenced to an additional 40 to 125 years in prison.
Attorneys for many of those who’d brought claims against the government hailed the agreement on Tuesday, but they stressed that “the FBI fundamentally failed to protect hundreds of women and girls from sexual abuse through inaction and total mishandling of their Larry Nassar investigation.”
“We are proud to have achieved a monumental settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, that not only secures the recovery the survivors deserve but also holds the DOJ and FBI accountable for their failures,” attorneys Megan Bonanni and Michael L. Pitt, representing 77 of the claimants, said in a statement.
“We hope this serves as a lesson for federal law enforcement and they make the changes necessary to prevent anything like this from happening again.”
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Failures to investigate sexual assaults in Houston, as well
Though a separate matter, the Nassar case and its mishandling by authorities echo the recent furor in Houston over the Houston Police Department’s failure to properly investigate many reports of sexual assault.
In that situation, the HPD failed to investigate thousands of claims of sexual assault dating back to 2021 by reason of “lack of personnel.”
A total of 4,107 sexual assault cases were suspended for this reason and labeled with the code “SL,” meaning suspended for lack of personnel. That code was recently disavowed by HPD and will not be used again.
When the huge backlog of cases came to light, the HPD investigated the suspended sexual assault cases. Police Chief Troy Finner said recently that almost all of them, or 3,948 of the suspended cases, have been reviewed.
Of those, 3,079 cases were rendered inactive due to a lack of workable leads, which means the department has taken the investigation of those cases as far as it can go.
“We will, of course, at any time reopen any case if we have additional evidence,” Finner said.
“I made a promise to everyone that we’re going to work through each and every one of those incident reports,” he said. “So that’s what we’re doing.”
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Criticism erupts over failures to investigate Houston sexual assaults
The HPD’s initial failures to investigate the suspended cases ignited an eruption of criticism and controversy in the city.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire said the creation of an “SL” code to dismiss thousands of sexual assault claims due to lack of personnel was the work of “some dumb individual.”
Whitmire said the code’s creator should not have brushed off sexual assault claims by citing a lack of personnel to investigate such claims.
“Wrong,” Whitmire said. “You sound the alarm.”
In agreement was Sonia Corrales, deputy CEO of the Houston Area Women’s Center. She said it is “the responsibility of the police department to fully investigate.”
The HPD is conducting an internal investigation to find the source of the SL code, which Finner says he did not authorize, and Whitmire has named an independent panel to conduct its own investigation.
Get an experienced Houston sex crime defense lawyer
When sexual assault claims are investigated, not every person who is arrested and charged is guilty of such a crime, and everyone has a constitutional right to fair treatment under the law and their “day in court.”
Persons who are convicted of sex crimes can face harsh punishments and penalties in Texas. Depending on the nature of the crime, a convicted person can face up to life in prison and fines in the thousands.
If you or a family member face a claim, accusation, allegation or charge of sexual assault or some other sex offense, you should get an experienced and knowledgeable sex crime defense lawyer or attorney to stand up for your legal rights.
