Thirteen sexual assault victims of Larry Nassar are seeking US$10 million (NZ$14.9m) each from the FBI, claiming a bungled investigation by agents led to more abuse by the sports doctor, lawyers said Friday.
It's an effort to make the government responsible for assaults that occurred after July 2015. The JusticeDepartment's inspector general concluded that the FBI made fundamental errors when it became aware of allegations against Nassar that year.
Nassar was a Michigan State University sports doctor as well as a doctor at USA Gymnastics. He is serving decades in prison for assaulting female athletes, including medal-winning Olympic gymnasts.
Larry Nassar. Photo / Getty
"This was not a case involving fake 20 dollar bills or tax cheats," attorney Jamie White said. "These were allegations of a serial rapist who was known to the FBI as the Olympic US doctor with unfettered access to young women."
Nassar, he added, continued a "reign of terror for 17 unnecessary months."
An email seeking comment was sent to the FBI.
White is not suing the FBI yet. Under federal law, tort claims must be a filed with a government agency, which then has six months to reply. A lawsuit could follow, depending on the FBI's response.
"No one should have been assaulted after the summer of 2015 because the FBI should have done its job," said Grace French, founder of a group called The Army of Survivors. "To know that the FBI could have helped to avoid this trauma disgusts me."
White noted the 2018 massacre at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The FBI received a tip about five weeks before 17 people were killed at the school, but the tip was never forwarded to the FBI's South Florida office. The government agreed to pay US$127.5 million to families of those killed or injured.
In the Nassar case, Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics told local FBI agents in 2015 that three gymnasts said they were assaulted by Nassar. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan, according to the inspector general's report.
US gymnasts (L-R) Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols all testified during a Senate Judiciary hearing into the FBI's handling of the investigation in 2021. Photo / Getty
Los Angeles FBI agents in 2016 began a sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and interviewed several victims but also didn't alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.
FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly apologised for how agents handled the matter.
"I'm sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again," he told victims at a Senate hearing last September. "And I'm especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that's inexcusable. It never should have happened."
White said more than 100 women were assaulted after July 2015, and he expects other lawyers will file claims against the FBI. Nassar wasn't arrested until November 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police.
The Michigan attorney general's office ultimately handled the assault charges, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case against Nassar.
Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances to stop Nassar, agreed to pay US$500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a US$380 million settlement.
