Michigan Says It Is Investigating if Team Doctor Abused Students

Ohio State said last year that Dr. Richard H. Strauss, whose roles in Columbus included serving as a doctor for the athletic department, had abused at least 177 men in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Critics of the university, including some involved in litigation against the school, assert that Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005, abused scores more people.

In August, a review panel said that medical regulators had unearthed evidence of abuse during Strauss’s life but that “systemic failures” at the university and the state’s medical board had for years “prevented any tangible administrative or criminal consequences.”

And at Michigan State, there has been sustained fallout from the case of Lawrence G. Nassar, the former team doctor for the school and for U.S.A. Gymnastics who sexually abused many girls and young women.

Nassar, who pleaded guilty to an array of charges, was effectively sentenced to life in prison, but prosecutors have also pursued others in connection with the investigation into his abuses.

Kathie Klages, a former gymnastics coach at Michigan State, was found guilty last week of lying to investigators when she told them she did not remember whether two teenagers had told her that they had been sexually abused by Nassar.

Lou Anna Simon, who was Michigan State’s president until 2018, has also been charged with lying to investigators. She is awaiting trial.

There have also been hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and settlement offers, including one last month from U.S.A. Gymnastics, which said it was willing to pay $215 million to hundreds of plaintiffs, including Olympic gymnasts, who said that Nassar had abused them.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/sports/michigan-doctor-abuse.html