WASHINGTON (AP) – Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexually abusing female gymnasts, was stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another inmate at a federal prison in Florida.
Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press the attack happened on Sunday at United States Penitentiary Coleman in Florida. The people said he was in stable condition yesterday.
One of the people said he had been stabbed in the back and in the chest.
The people were not authorised to publicly discuss details of the attack or the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Nassar was sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts, including Olympic medalists.
Nassar is serving decades in prison for convictions in state and federal courts. He admitted sexually assaulting athletes when he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians. Separately, Nassar pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
During victim impact statements in 2018, several athletes testified that over the course of Nassar’s more than two decades of sexual abuse they had told adults what was happening, including coaches and athletic trainers, but that it went unreported.
More than 100 women, including Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, collectively sought more than USD1 billion from the federal government for the FBI’s failure to stop Nassar when agents became aware of allegations against him in 2015. He was arrested by Michigan State University police in 2016, more than a year later.
Michigan State, which was accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay USD500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a USD380 million settlement.
In June 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a final appeal from Nassar. Attorneys for Nassar said he was treated unfairly in 2018 and deserved a new hearing, based on vengeful remarks by a judge who called him a “monster” who would “wither” in prison like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz.
“I just signed your death warrant,” Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said of Nassar’s 40-year sentence.
The state Supreme Court said that Nassar’s appeal was a “close question” and that it had “concerns” over the judge’s conduct. But the court also noted that Aquilina, despite her provocative comments, stuck to the sentencing agreement worked out by lawyers in the case.
