Larry Nassar becomes the go-to doctor for treating injured gymnasts after he helps the USA win Olympic gold; young women flock to him for rehabilitation; it takes years before the true cost of his medal-winning techniques comes to light.
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00:00The American Pronunciation Guide Presents ''How to Pronounce Nasser''
00:06A common problem with gymnastics is what's called the cross-pelvic syndrome.
00:14I'm not going to do anything that's not legal. Larry Nasser had a reputation that no other doctor I knew had.
00:21Everybody trusted him.
00:23And I remember being like,
00:25''Oh, you've touched greatness.''
00:28And just being enamored with him.
00:31No one really knew just how much power Larry had.
00:35Nasser used the money, metals, and power to blind everyone.
00:39These treatments where you're dealing with girls, do you ever get aroused during these exams?
00:44I sent patients to this guy. I recommend this guy to other doctors.
00:48Oh, wow. He's not putting gloves on. But it's got to be legit. He's the Olympic doctor.
00:54He probably did feel invincible.
00:57In my opinion, it became such an addiction for him, he used it as a weapon.
01:18The 2024 Olympics was the first competition I've seen and been able to kind of sit and watch in probably 8, 12 years.
01:45Simone Biles powered a dominant U.S. women's team in the finals in Paris, with Biles at her show-stopping best.
01:53The sport has come such a long way since I was a competitor.
01:57I was able to watch and feel proud of my own past.
02:02Hey, guys. Welcome to our floor.
02:06The girls were happy. They weren't afraid. They were in a better mental place. They were able to do super well.
02:12It's a beautiful sport, and it had been defiled by bad people for decades.
02:25Growing up, I did feel like I never really fit in anywhere.
02:30Once I found gymnastics, that's when I actually started to have friends.
02:35I started probably around the age of 6, just taking an acrobatics class through a local dance studio.
02:43That's when I became addicted to the feeling of flying and the strength and being able to do something that none of my friends could do.
02:53I loved dancing. My mom signed me up for dance classes when I was, I think, 2 1⁄2, 3 years old, and I never stopped.
03:04A lot of low back pain is associated to an independent or weak butt muscle,
03:09so that's one of the biggest things that I look for, for an imbalance in their trunk to try and work this problem out.
03:16I met Larry when I was 8, and it was at a competition.
03:22I felt privileged to be seen by him because of his reputation and because he was so well-known.
03:29He was known as a world-renowned doctor, and I always felt really special to be able to go and see him because he was the U.S. Olympic doctor.
03:39Oh my gosh, you're like the crumb to the crumb, and I get to be treated by that.
03:46The entirety of who I was was based on my success and failures as a gymnast.
03:53If I wasn't able to compete, I couldn't live my life, and he was helping me to achieve my goals.
04:04I first met Larry Nassar at Michigan State. I was a medical student in 1991, and Larry was well-known through the school
04:11because he had already been doing athletic training work with gymnastics before he became a doctor.
04:16I was so impressed, I didn't realize he was only a year or two ahead of me. I thought he was faculty at first, and then I realized he was actually a medical student.
04:23I was like, oh, okay, wow, okay, this guy really, he's got it going on.
04:28We were all amazed by how advanced he was in the field already.
04:31He was very smart, very intelligent, very eager to go far in sports medicine, very eager to do work in gymnastics.
04:38He was very passionate about it. Larry had a very strong relationship with his family.
04:43Larry Nassar, for the 1996 Olympics, assumed a very important role, National Medical Coordinator of USA Gymnastics.
04:52At a time, he was in his early 30s and still a student.
05:01The United States still hadn't won a women's gymnastics team championship, and Larry was still a student.
05:08The United States still hadn't won a women's gymnastics team championship,
05:12and that's what people were looking for in 1996 on that last day of the team gymnastics competition.
05:21The last gymnast for the United States was Carrie Strutt from the vault, and there was pressure.
05:27You could see it. You could feel it.
05:39On her first vault, Carrie Strutt fell and injured her ankle.
05:44Someone in that much pain visibly on TV was pretty startling.
05:51Larry scooped in and put his arm around her, and he was this sort of hero.
05:58He kind of just almost fatherly protects her as she's like wrapping her arms around him and crying,
06:05and he's like that little savior hero guy that comes in and protects her.
06:12Larry was tasked with trying to tape her up and trying to help her at that moment,
06:16and with the encouragement of the coaches, wanted her to go back out there and do her second vault.
06:22People justifiably thought that Carrie Strutt had to do that second vault for the U.S. to win a gold medal.
06:36And so she did the vault, was able to land on one foot, which was absolutely incredible.
06:46And score enough to help the team get the gold.
06:51Carrie Strutt kept the first ever U.S. women's team gymnastics gold by naming a vault on one leg.
06:58It's one of those moments that, yeah, that sticks in your mind forever.
07:03Larry's reputation after the 1996 Olympics was pretty much a reputation that no other doctor I knew had,
07:10because not many doctors get to be on national TV like that.
07:14Anybody associated with that kind of dramatic and important victory would come out of the Olympics with enhanced reputation.
07:23Larry pretty much became the de facto authority in gymnastics in the country.
07:28He was like the person that you had to go see if something was wrong.
07:32So he got to know, on a first-name basis, pretty much every top-level gymnast that would ever come through the program for 20 years.
07:46When I was eight, I had landed short on a vault, and my back was giving me some pain.
07:54And it happened to be him on staff as the trainer that kind of checked me out.
08:00Injuries are part of the game, and so when I had the opportunity to do something to fix that,
08:07I was going to take whatever was necessary to do that.
08:12I did always actually look forward to him being at competitions,
08:16and when I knew he was going to be there, I was actually more comfortable and confident.
08:22You could tell him what skills you were doing or what tricks you were throwing,
08:26and he knew exactly what body movements were required and what hurt and the injury itself.
08:35Eventually, I was seeing him just about weekly to get treatment.
08:41My back was always a problem.
08:45Larry was very laid-back, very casual.
08:48I felt like he was much different than a lot of the other doctors.
08:52He didn't feel intimidating.
08:55He had a good guy persona right off the bat.
09:01He was quirky and energetic, kind of a funny guy.
09:04He had lots of little eccentricities about how he phrased things.
09:08Where you get some inhibition, inhibition, tightness, tightness,
09:11and it spells trouble with a capital T right here, okay?
09:17He was a warm, charismatic nerd.
09:21Nerdy as far as, like, oh, this is how the body works and stuff like that,
09:26but also, like, easy to talk to.
09:30He was always very kind to others.
09:32He was always very gentle.
09:34He was never a boisterous or forceful personality.
09:37You have to protect your athletes.
09:40You have to let them know that we care, you know?
09:42It's not just a pat on the back.
09:44Hug them and love them and listen to them and support them.
09:50He had nicknames for me.
09:52He used to always call me Goofy.
09:55He would give me gifts.
09:57Whenever he went to the Olympics, he would bring back postcards
10:01and then have all the gymnasts sign them.
10:04Everyone that knew him thought highly of him.
10:07He was somebody I idolized and admired.
10:13Eventually, Larry Nassar became a professor
10:16at Michigan State University
10:18and the university team doctor for the women's gymnastics team.
10:24But he's not just an expert with bruises and sprained ankles.
10:27He's also done groundbreaking research
10:29on the effects of gymnastics on kids with autism.
10:33Physically, with balance, with proprioception, with strength,
10:36those skills helps to transfer over
10:38into her socializing skills too,
10:40working with coaches, eye contact, hearing and responding.
10:45Larry Nassar was not shy at all
10:48about advertising the good things he was doing.
10:54I definitely think that Larry had grander goals
10:57for gymnastics as far as medical care for it.
11:00You don't become like the de facto person
11:03that runs the health and wellness of the university.
11:06That runs the health and wellness of USA Gymnastics
11:09by being passive.
11:10You have to play the political games,
11:12you have to lobby the right people,
11:14you have to do a lot of work to get to that position.
11:17The 1990s was the start of Larry Nassar's ascent,
11:22and it continued for decades.
11:25Nassar had patients locally and nationally,
11:29and traveling around to all these competitions
11:32grew his reputation exponentially.
11:36In my mind, there was no one
11:38that had the expertise that that man had.
11:41He had all these different power sources all wrapped into one.
11:45He was a celebrity in the gymnastics world,
11:48he was an expert as a doctor,
11:50he had a legitimate title,
11:52and he also was giving different gymnasts his friendship.
11:56These young gymnasts would have seen Nassar
11:59as somebody who was in the proximity
12:02of the most powerful people in the sport,
12:05people who would influence their careers
12:08and could perhaps make their ambitions come true.
12:12No one really knew just how much power Larry had.
12:16Everybody trusted him. He was Dr. Larry.
12:19What happened with Larry Nassar made me question
12:22every interaction with him since 1991
12:25and shaken my trust in people in general.
12:30A common problem with gymnastics
12:33is what's called the cross-pelvic syndrome.
12:36What's happening there is,
12:38their back muscles may be tight,
12:41their hip flexors may be tight.
12:44Larry had made tons of videos
12:47showing techniques for gymnasts, for trainers, for doctors.
12:51He'd have a lot of these videos on his website.
12:54He would disseminate them to coaches and other programs.
12:58He was always very dedicated to helping other doctors.
13:01He was a very giving person in that respect.
13:04So what do we do to try and help that athlete?
13:07A lot of the techniques that Larry was demonstrating
13:10were all things that we've done before,
13:13how to adjust a neck, a low back, a shoulder.
13:16There were some videos, however,
13:18that were a little more revealing of the gymnast.
13:21He would do a lot of work near the pelvic floor.
13:24That made me feel a little uncomfortable.
13:27But never did I think that Larry was doing anything nefarious.
13:44Around the age of 10, 11,
13:47I had been having back pain for several, several years.
13:51So I was recommended to see Larry Nassar
13:55through my mom's best friend.
13:58And so it was right around the end of 96, beginning of 97,
14:04at his office at Michigan State University that I first saw him.
14:15There was definitely within the first meeting of him,
14:18him talking about how, oh yeah, I was the guy
14:21that came up onto the floor and scooped up Carrie's drug.
14:24And then you're just like...
14:27And I remember being like,
14:29head over heels, whatever you want, let's do it.
14:32The first appointment, I know I'll wear the x-rays.
14:35He did a lot of, like, standing behind me,
14:38checking, like, how my pelvis moved,
14:40all legitimate things as a PT.
14:46And after, he just said,
14:48hey, I'm just going to push on some pressure points
14:51kind of around your hip, pelvis area.
14:55Still to this day, I distinctly remember thinking,
14:59oh wow, he's not putting gloves on.
15:03I feel like had he given a verbal, like,
15:07hey, we're going to go inside your vagina,
15:10I would have spoken up.
15:12But at the time, I was like, he knows what he's doing.
15:15He's treated all these people.
15:18So, it's got to be legit, right?
15:21He's the Olympic doctor.
15:23Like, you know, they've got to be able to pick
15:26from the cream of the crop, right?
15:30I remember the start of the treatment.
15:33I remember leaving my body,
15:35watching myself from the ceiling looking down.
15:39And the session ending.
15:41And then me not being able to look at him in the eyes.
15:49I remember going home and just, like,
15:52laying and looking out the window
15:54and just, like, tears streaming down my face.
15:56I feel like it's so humiliating.
16:00But thinking it's still my problem.
16:02It's still me.
16:03I'm the prude. I'm the problem.
16:10I didn't have the words to say what was bothering me.
16:14I didn't understand what was bothering me at that age.
16:18I never told anyone until my friend asked,
16:22did he ever put his fingers inside you?
16:25And I said, all the time.
16:27And she said, that's not right.
16:31And then I told my best friend, who wasn't a gymnast,
16:35and she told me it was abuse.
16:39I wouldn't believe that he was an abuser.
16:42And in fact, I did defend him
16:44as a good doctor and somebody that was helping me
16:47to achieve my goals.
16:51I grew up thinking that doctors were trustworthy
16:55and, in fact, was told as a child
16:58that doctors could touch you in places
17:00that other people couldn't.
17:05I'd known him all my life.
17:08He was a family friend,
17:10and the father figured it out.
17:12There were countless reasons why I thought I could trust him.
17:15I didn't really start seeing him every week
17:17until third grade for appointments for my neck and back.
17:21I was an eight-, nine-year-old child.
17:26Sometimes he would skip treating my back
17:29and just go straight to my pelvic area.
17:36It'd make me feel really gross,
17:38and it was just so weird.
17:40It was really gross, and it was painful.
17:45I trusted him, so I always tried to make excuses,
17:48but...
17:51I don't know, I think I knew deep down,
17:53like, it probably wasn't right.
18:02The first time he actually touched me inappropriately,
18:07I was looking to my mom to see her reaction,
18:11and because she was calm
18:13and kind of chatting with him as this was happening,
18:18I told myself it was fine.
18:20He did all of his procedures right there with him.
18:24He would position himself between my parent and myself.
18:30They were there the whole time.
18:33There are times when, like, the internal treatments
18:37would just go on and on and on,
18:40and I would just be raw and excruciating pain.
18:47The gymnastics mentality is that if I wasn't in pain,
18:51I wasn't pushing myself hard enough.
18:53It is a no pain, no gain situation
18:56where you don't complain to your coaches,
18:59because if you do, you're punished.
19:01And so you very much learn from a very early start
19:06that you don't say anything.
19:09I do feel like the win-at-all-cost mentality
19:13made elite athletes in general ripe for abuse,
19:18because, OK, I don't like this, but I've got to do it, right?
19:24I've got to not complain.
19:26I've got to just suck it up and deal with it.
19:31I think I was such an easy target for him
19:34because I came in with that mentality.
19:38He used it as a weapon.
19:43In my opinion, it became such an addiction for him,
19:46and the longer he got away with it, the more brazen he got.
19:50The abuse got worse as I got older.
19:53He probably did feel invincible,
19:55like he could do whatever he wanted and he wouldn't get caught.
19:59I think that's probably why he felt like he had the power.
20:05The abuse that I endured with Larry
20:08ultimately, I think, was one of the reasons
20:11I had to quit gymnastics when I was 16.
20:15I saw him on and off, from, say, 10, 11,
20:19to when he essentially told me if he couldn't fix me,
20:23it was time I give up gymnastics, which was my 8th grade year.
20:29I had disconnected from the gymnastics world altogether
20:34for probably almost 20 years.
20:36When I was 16, I decided to quit gymnastics.
20:41I had disconnected from the gymnastics world altogether
20:44for probably almost 20 years.
20:46When the news came out...
20:49I never dreamed in a million years
20:51that this would end up becoming a national event
20:55and tip off a massive movement worldwide.
21:11There was a team at the Indianapolis Star
21:14who got an email from a woman named Rachel Denhollander.
21:19At the same time, there was a lawsuit being prepared
21:23by an elite gymnast named Jamie Dantzscher.
21:26They alleged that Nassar, under the guise of medical care,
21:31had sexually abused them years earlier,
21:34and it was impossible not to wonder
21:37how many more could there be.
21:39And I said, we are on to something that is beyond F.R.
21:47It was actually a week after I had just seen Larry.
21:52My mom watches the news every night,
21:55and this report popped up.
21:58Nassar, he also began to massage internally,
22:01and nothing was off limits for him.
22:04My mom called me to come look at this.
22:06She was like, this is crazy.
22:08What do you know right now about Larry?
22:11It's very difficult to come forward against somebody
22:14who's as prominent as he is.
22:17Everybody who's a gymnast knows who Nassar is.
22:21I was shocked.
22:23My mom asked me if it had happened to me,
22:26and I just kept brushing it off and saying,
22:29no, no, like, he wouldn't do that to me,
22:31even though I knew that he had,
22:33and I was battling with it in my mind.
22:38Initially, I was in shock.
22:40Could I really be a part of this?
22:43I had no idea the scale.
22:45My experience had been so many years ago,
22:48and so when I found out that there were other allegations,
22:53I had a lot of different emotions about it
22:57just because I didn't speak up,
22:59and a lot of guilt for not recognizing
23:02what had happened to me.
23:08Larry called me on the phone,
23:10and he wasn't overly emotional at all,
23:12and he said, yeah, Steve, I'm just calling to tell you
23:15that you're going to read an article about me
23:18and two people accusing me of sexual abuse.
23:22He felt like he was in control,
23:24almost like he had done this talk with several other people.
23:28He thought that Jamie Dantzscher was crazy.
23:32He was trying to dismiss her testimony
23:36and her accusations as being someone who was unstable and crazy.
23:40So my first inclination was to trust him and believe him.
23:45It was hard for anybody to fathom Larry doing anything like this.
23:50He was recruiting people to defend him,
23:52and he was getting people to, like, vouch for him.
23:56Everybody who was associated with Larry all these years,
23:59we were essentially groomed in a way to believe
24:03that there was nothing that he would ever do
24:05that could possibly be, you know, lascivious or perverted or abusive.
24:12I think there was more disbelief of survivors
24:15rather than there was support,
24:17and I was very hyper-aware of how everyone was treating the other survivors.
24:24My friend at Dance at the time, her family were family friends of his,
24:28and obviously their family took his side too.
24:32It made it really hard for me to feel comfortable to want to speak my truth,
24:36so I fell into a really bad depression
24:39because I was having to, like, bury what happened to me,
24:42and I couldn't talk about it to anyone.
24:48Around this time, Rachel Denhollander
24:51went to the Michigan State University police.
24:55There was a complaint brought against Larry
24:57that Larry had done some improper, abusive things to her in the clinic.
25:02The Michigan State University police interviewed Larry Nassar.
25:28I mean, come on, you know what I mean?
25:30I'm not purposely trying to gain some type of sexual gratification out of doing that.
25:37That's not what I'm doing, okay?
25:40That's, you know, if there was arousal, it's...
25:45I mean, like, it would be because of whatever.
25:49I don't know, but I'm not trying to...
25:51Whatever, whatever, I don't know.
25:53Well, well...
25:54I don't know.
25:56You know what I mean? But I don't...
26:02He always used to wear a fanny pack,
26:04and at first I just thought that was, like, a quirky thing about him,
26:09but as I have gotten older and reflected,
26:13I definitely think he used to tuck his erection into the fanny pack.
26:17I didn't even know what an erection was at that point in time.
26:26In September 2016, just a week or two after our story,
26:32Michigan State University fired Larry Nassar.
26:37A few weeks later, Nassar started facing criminal charges.
26:42I was very surprised that the university acted that quickly,
26:48but as it turned out, they hadn't acted quickly at all.
26:52Two years earlier, Michigan State University
26:54received a similar allegation
26:57and did not address it nearly the same way they did in 2016.
27:07I've asked you to come in here voluntarily
27:09because this is under investigation.
27:11It sounds like there was a complaint made over MSU Sports Medicine.
27:14What I was told was that the patient was concerned
27:20that I was inappropriately touching her and didn't understand why.
27:24Those are two things that confused me
27:26because I do this on a regular basis.
27:30This is a treatment that I lecture on.
27:33There's no question I was touching her in her private areas.
27:36That's what I do.
27:43While they were investigating,
27:45allegations of inappropriate behavior,
27:48Larry Nassar was pulled off of duty for a brief period of time.
27:54The 2014 investigation found that what Nassar was doing was appropriate
28:01and he was allowed to return to practice under a few conditions,
28:06things like doing exams in proper clinical settings,
28:10having a chaperone present for a minor,
28:13and using gloves.
28:15But obviously Michigan State, they let it go on.
28:19They didn't actually follow through.
28:21Where his activities were called into question,
28:25he was able to manipulate Michigan State University.
28:29He was a master manipulator.
28:32Nassar had dozens of patients.
28:35Lack of action caused an untold number of other girls to have been abused.
28:43As we and other journalists kept digging,
28:46it became apparent that Michigan State University
28:49wasn't the only large institution that failed these children.
28:54USA Gymnastics had a policy
28:58of almost literally filing away complaints
29:02if they didn't come from a gymnast parent or guardian.
29:07Big, powerful, important organizations
29:09Big, powerful, important organizations
29:11sometimes regard their own reputation and public standing
29:16as more important than protecting children.
29:20For years and years, they were being abused by this man
29:25who was hiding in plain sight.
29:29Somebody who has gotten away with what he had done for so long
29:34had to have thought that he could keep doing it
29:37and get away with it.
29:40More than 60 women have filed complaints alleging abuse
29:43under the guise of invasive medical exams.
29:46New lawsuits were filed yesterday.
29:49Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics,
29:51and even seven individuals, including Nassar,
29:54are named as defendants in the new lawsuit.
29:59People were finding out that we were the firm in the area
30:04representing survivors against Michigan State University.
30:09And as word got around, I would receive more and more calls.
30:17After we were at 12 or 20, I started thinking to myself,
30:21you know, could this be real that there are that many?
30:27I contacted a lawyer,
30:30called them from the parking lot of a school,
30:34and kind of said, hey, this happened to me.
30:39I'm considering coming forward.
30:42I'm just really scared.
30:45The next day, my husband and I ended up meeting with a lawyer
30:50and deciding to go forward with the case.
30:55Larry started working on his criminal case.
31:00He was going to work very hard to defend himself,
31:03and he had a whole plan in place to try to overwhelm the accusers
31:08with research on his medical techniques
31:10and then testimonies from this cultivated army of supporters
31:13that he had.
31:14At the time, I was more on the side of Larry
31:17because he was my friend.
31:19I thought he probably may have done something
31:22that could have been misconstrued at the worst,
31:25but I never thought that he would do something sexual.
31:31I first heard about the Nassar story
31:34after the case had been assigned to me.
31:37And my staff came to me and said,
31:39oh my gosh, do you know what case you have?
31:42And said it's all over the news.
31:45We started receiving letters.
31:47For every 100 letters we got against Nassar,
31:51there were probably 10 letters from his friends
31:55saying he's a good guy, this is medical, what are you doing?
31:59Nassar used his medical degree to tell people
32:02the pelvic floor manipulation that he was doing
32:05on these young girls was medical, not sexual.
32:08And he went on to blame certain girls
32:11and basically say all of this is not true, they're lying.
32:16There was a judge who asked, has Middleman lost his mind?
32:21They thought that the university and Nassar, I guess,
32:26were above reproach.
32:28Nassar constantly tried to take the power
32:31because somewhere in his head he said,
32:33I'm going to appeal everybody, I'm still right, I'm going to win.
32:37Because that's the power and control
32:39that predators have in their head.
32:42As law enforcement was investigating Nassar,
32:45they came across something that would change the case completely.
32:50New charges against the former Olympics doctor
32:53already charging sexually assaulting teen girls.
32:56The feds say Larry Nassar had child porn in his possession.
33:01Nassar had on his computers 37,000 or more images of children
33:08and he had put them out into the trash.
33:11He thought, you know, once he threw them out, game over.
33:15But law enforcement found those pictures.
33:19The federal law enforcement said,
33:21I'm going to sue you for child porn.
33:24Wow, game over.
33:26But law enforcement found those pictures.
33:29The federal judge said that it was some of the worst
33:33child pornography she's ever seen.
33:36I don't want to go there in my own imagination. I can't.
33:43Nassar is arrested.
33:47And that's when the tide of public sentiment went against Larry.
33:54When I heard the charges and I read all the details,
33:57I think I was physically nauseous
33:59because I was trying to comprehend
34:02how I supported him for even one minute.
34:05And it took me a little while to reconcile that.
34:08It was this horrible feeling like, oh, my God,
34:11I sent patients to this guy.
34:13I recommend this guy to other doctors.
34:16And the shame of this, of course, is that it took
34:19this overwhelming pile of evidence for us to say,
34:21yeah, those women were not lying after all.
34:24You start thinking back to all your memories.
34:26Is there something that I missed?
34:28Is there something that I didn't see?
34:30Is there something that I could have done to stop this?
34:35I was extremely disgusted and really disturbed,
34:38but it was relieving to know that there was hard proof
34:41that could incriminate him.
34:43People couldn't question anymore
34:45if the survivors were making it up.
34:51There were civil lawsuits against Nassar.
34:54There were state crimes related to sexual abuse.
34:59But the federal charges of child pornography
35:03really started his world crumbling.
35:06Near the end of 2017,
35:09Nassar pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges,
35:14but he was still facing state charges
35:17related to sexual assault.
35:19His lawyers, they were out there
35:22trying to say this guy's innocent.
35:28At this point, dozens and dozens of victims had come forward.
35:33Larry Nassar has maintained his innocence
35:35in the state cases against him,
35:37saying the treatments he performed
35:39were accepted medical techniques.
35:41But that all changed today.
35:44The lawyers came to me and said,
35:46would you accept a plea?
35:48And I said, what is it?
35:50And it was that he would plead to seven charges.
35:53The rest of the charges would be dismissed.
35:56Victim A, how do you plead?
35:59I'm guilty of state abuse.
36:02It hit me like a sledgehammer.
36:04I wanted to run over there
36:06and just punch him as hard as I could in the face
36:09and say, why wasn't it good enough
36:11for you to just be the doctor that they trusted?
36:22I said, well, I am going to allow everyone
36:25who wanted to testify to speak.
36:27It's their time, their right,
36:29and their voice that needs to be heard.
36:33I wanted to confront him specifically in the court,
36:38and I was willing to put my name out there
36:41if that's what it was going to take.
36:43While it has not been easy to find the strength
36:46to be where I am today, I am here as a survivor.
36:49I am no longer a victim.
36:51Originally, there were only several who were going to speak,
36:55and then the army grew one by one.
36:58I originally wished to remain anonymous.
37:00However, I will no longer let you have control over me.
37:03I will not let you win.
37:05I remember seeing his face, and I was just thinking,
37:08like, I don't want to be ashamed of what happened to me.
37:12I want to be able to share my story
37:14and be an advocate for others,
37:16and so I decided that I wanted to go public.
37:19My last treatment was in August 2016.
37:22A week later, he was let go by MSU.
37:25I am possibly the last child he will ever assault.
37:29169 spoke.
37:31You should have been locked up a long, long time ago.
37:34How dare you ask any of us for forgiveness?
37:37And they would turn to him, and they really took control,
37:41and you could see their pain leaving.
37:44I remember walking away from the podium
37:47and just feeling like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.
37:51It was definitely something that was empowering
37:54to be able to have a voice,
37:56especially for some of us that had been silenced for so long.
38:05All right.
38:07This monster should never see the light of day, and he won't.
38:13You don't get to violate human beings like that,
38:18so as long as he never gets out,
38:21he will have gotten a sentence he deserves.
38:24applause
38:27acoustic guitar plays softly
38:50It makes me mad, and I don't know what to do.
38:54It makes me mad, and it makes me sad, too,
38:57that there were people who could have held him accountable
39:00for what he did, but because of his power that he had,
39:04he wasn't held accountable.
39:07Nasser used the money, metals, and power
39:10to blind everyone for his own sexual pleasure.
39:14He was a god walking on glass and not feeling it
39:18because he was elevated by so many.
39:22Evil takes all different shapes and sizes,
39:25and the kind of evil that he is portraying
39:28is that insidious form that can evade detection in society.
39:32As abuses of power goes, this has to be one of the worst.
39:38He was a serial, prolific, nice guy,
39:43and those are the most dangerous.
39:47Still to this day, I have a hard time reconciling
39:52who I spent decades believing he was
39:56to who I know cognitively he is now.
40:03I've tried to come to peace with just not knowing all the answers,
40:07and that's okay.
40:11I'm a better person now because of what I've overcome,
40:17and I do feel like I've taken the power back.
40:22You know, I know he's not going to the same place I am.
40:33Big man.
40:35His whole life was practicing medicine.
40:38He was loved. He was looked up to.
40:41Our pastor was like a celebrity, like a local celebrity.
40:46She wanted to build a profession helping to heal people naturally.
40:51Somebody in that police department is not telling the truth.
40:55After three dead bodies, they started seeing patterns.
41:00Her desire for power and control drove her to extremes.
41:04I deserve to live. They don't.
41:07Power brought him sex. Power brought him money.
41:10He would use any means necessary to keep that power.
41:13Just what kind of doctor are you? It's just evil.
41:17Who can you trust?
41:19I will do whatever has to be done to survive.
41:21They saw a massive amount of blood.
41:24Everybody was just in disbelief that this could even be possible.