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14 Years After Failing To Believe Nassar Victim; Police To Issue Apology

LANSING (WWJ) - In 2004,  a 17-year-old girl and her mother walked into a police station in the Lansing area to file a complaint against MSU doctor Larry Nassar.

Brianne Randall-Gay told police she was "scared" and "uncomfortable" after the appointment with Nassar in which he massaged her breast and touched the girl's vagina during treatment for scoliosis. She told her mother and they went to police - who did not believe Nassar had committed any crime and closed the case.

Meridian police have released the report and scheduled a press conference for Thursday in which they intend to publicly apologize to Randall-Gay for 'missing it.'

Click here to see the report (.pdf format **WARNING: May contain language and images disturbing to some)

Police say that at the time they questioned Nassar he provided a Power-Point presentation in which he described a technique which required touching those areas during his treatment.

"We're not going to hide it. We were deceived," said Meridian Township Manager Frank Walsh in a statement, contending the right thing to do is to apologize publicly to the victim.

Chief Dave Hall, who was acting police chief at the time, told the Lansing State Journal in June the case was never sent to prosecutors. He said the department had no specialized unit for sexual assault or crimes against children.

According to the State Journal three requests for the police report were declined; Meridian Twp. Police "citing directions to withhold the report from the Ingham County Prosecutor's Office in January 2017 and Attorney General Bill Schuette's office in January 2018."

WWJ has reached out to the Attorney General's office for comment on the withholding of the public record.

Nassar, 54, worked as a team doctor at Michigan State University and for USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.

Last week the disgraced former sports doctor  was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexual assaulting female patients.

During victim impact statements, one woman (of the 150 plus) said when she reported Nassar's disturbing "treatments" to MSU training staff, she was allegedly told that Nassar was a world-renowned doctor and that his "inter‐vaginal adjustments" were legitimate medical treatments.

The sexual assault sentence is on top of a 60 year sentence for Nassar on a separate federal conviction for child pornography.

 

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