Larry Nassar, the former sports doctor who is serving a decadeslong prison term for sexually abusing young female gymnasts, was stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another inmate on Sunday.
Nassar, 59, was stabbed six times in the chest and twice each in the neck and back, according to Joe Rojas, president of Local 506, the union that represents employees at the Florida prison where Nassar is incarcerated. Nassar suffered a collapsed lung, Rojas told USA TODAY Sports but was in stable condition Monday.
A statement by the Florida Board of Prisons obtained by the USA TODAY Network did not identify the individuals involved in the incident but confirmed it occurred at 2:35 p.m. on Sunday at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman in Sumterville, Florida. The statement also said lifesaving measures were immediately initiated and an inmate was transported by emergency medical personnel to a local hospital “for further treatment and evaluation.”
WHO IS LARRY NASSAR? Timeline of career, sexual assault convictions
Rojas praised the quick thinking of staff for Nassar surviving the attack but said prison employees had been warning that something like this could occur because of staffing shortages. Employees had an informational picket on June 22 to call attention to the shortages, which are requiring some staff to work 16-hour shifts three days in a row, Rojas said.
“We warned of unsafe conditions for staff and inmates,” Rojas said. “You can’t expect us to protect these inmates when you don’t support us and supply us with bodies and positions.”
This was not the first time Nassar has been attacked in prison. Six months after his sentencing, Nassar was moved from a prison in Tucson, Arizona, to a holding facility in Oklahoma City after he was assaulted while a member of the general prison population. He was eventually transferred to the Florida prison.
Hundreds of athletes said they were abused by Larry Nassar
Hundreds of athletes, including Olympic champions Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, said they were sexually abused by Nassar, often under the guise of medical treatment.
USA Gymnastics reported Nassar to the FBI in the summer of 2015 and also alerted the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to Nassar’s suspected misconduct. But it would be almost another year before the FBI began an investigation. Neither USA Gymnastics nor the USOPC said anything publicly about Nassar until The Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, published a story in September 2016 in which two former gymnasts said he’d sexually abused them.
It was later learned that several Michigan State athletes had complained about Nassar, too, only to be ignored.
Nassar was not arrested until November 2016. He is serving an effective life sentence after pleading guilty in 2017 to federal child pornography charges and state sexual abuse charges.
“I think of the young girl that I was and the little girls and young women all of these survivors were every day,” Rachael Denhollander, one of Nassar’s first public accusers, said at his January 2018 sentencing hearing on the state charges.
“I feel like I see them in the faces of my two precious daughters. When I watch my daughters’ eyes light up as they dance to “The Nutcracker,” I remember the little girl that I and all of these women used to be. The sparkle their eyes must have had as mine did before their innocence was taken,” Denhollander said. “I watched my daughters love and trust unreservedly, and I remember the long road that it has been to let myself love and be loved without fear. I think of the scars that still remain for all of us.”
Creation of US Center for SafeSport
The failures to act, by both officials in the Olympic movement and law enforcement, led to investigations by Congress and the USOPC that revealed widespread inadequacies in addressing sexual abuse. Among other things, the investigations found proper background checks were not being done, and individual sports federations were often left to create their own athlete safety programs, leading to an inconsistent patchwork of policies.
“For too long, the policies and procedures adopted and implemented by NGBs have fallen short,” a 2018 report by the House Energy and Commerce Committee concluded.
“The culture of the Olympic community must change. … It is critical that the USOC, the NGBs, and all those involved in organized sport recognize that the protection of athletes – the vast majority of whom are minors – must be the top priority.”
The Nassar scandal led to the creation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which has been charged by Congress with investigating sexual abuse in the Olympic movement. It also prompted overhauls of leadership at both USA Gymnastics and the USOPC.
Nassar’s survivors sued Michigan State, USA Gymnastics and the USOPC. USA Gymnastics and the USOPC agreed in 2021 to pay $380 million to settle with more than 500 women who said they were abused by Nassar, their coach, or someone else affiliated with the sport. Michigan State reached a $500 million settlement with the survivors in 2018 and was fined a record $4.5 million by the U.S. Department of Education.
