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'Monster' Sports Doc Larry Nassar Gets 60-Year Sentence For Child Porn

GRAND RAPIDS (WWJ/AP) - A Michigan sports doctor has received the first of three prison sentences that will keep him locked up for decades for assaulting female gymnasts and possessing child pornography.

Larry Nassar, who had more than 37,000 images of child porn on electronic devices, was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in prison on three federal charges, the maximum penalty allowed. Separately, he'll be sentenced in state court in January for molesting gymnasts with his hands. His federal and state sentences will be served consecutively.

"He has demonstrated that he should never again have access to children," U.S. District Judge Janet Neff said in court.

Nassar, 54, worked at Michigan State University and at USA Gymnastics, the Indianapolis-based group that trains Olympians.

"Underneath this veneer lurked a predator," Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Lewis said.

Olympians Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Gabby Douglas say they were victims when Nassar worked for USA Gymnastics and accompanied them at workouts or international events.

Nassar is a "monster" who "left scars on my psyche that may never go away," Maroney said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Janet Neff.

In a court filing, defense lawyers said Nassar "deeply regrets the pain that he has caused the community."

The child pornography was discovered last year when Nassar was being investigated for assault.

Aside from the criminal cases, more than 100 women and girls are suing Nassar. Michigan State and USA Gymnastics are defendants in many of the lawsuits.

The criminal cases against Nassar followed reports last year in The Indianapolis Star about how USA Gymnastics mishandled complaints about sexual misconduct involving the doctor and coaches. Women and girls said the stories inspired them to step forward with detailed allegations of abuse.

The girls have testified that Nassar molested them while they sought help for gymnastics injuries, sometimes when a parent was present in the room. Many of the allegations are the same: During the course of Nassar's treatments, the doctor inserted "his bare, ungloved and unlubricated hand" into the victim's vagina.

"I was all alone with him in his hotel room getting a 'treatment.' I thought I was going to die that night," Maroney wrote on Twitter, detailing her alleged abuse.

When one woman 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 incidents took place at his Michigan State clinic, his home in Holt and at a Lansing-area gymnastics club. Some allegations go back to 1998.

Nassar was fired from Michigan State University in September 2016, and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians, cut ties in 2015.

© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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