Michigan State’s $500 Million for Nassar Victims Dwarfs Other Settlements

Michigan State’s $500 Million for Nassar Victims Dwarfs Other Settlements
By Mitch Smith and Anemona Hartocollis
May 16, 2018

Victims of Lawrence G. Nassar, the Michigan State University physician who sexually abused young women under the guise of medical treatment, would receive $500 million from the university in a settlement that is believed to be the largest ever reached in a sexual abuse case involving an American university.

It dwarfed the size of the settlement reached in the sex abuse scandal at Pennsylvania State University. And it was larger than many of the settlements that followed the child sex abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church.

“I think the number being so large sends a message that is undeniable, that something really terrible happened here and that Michigan State owns it,” said John Manly, a lawyer for many of the 332 women who sued the university over abuse by Dr. Nassar. “When you pay half a billion dollars, it’s an admission of responsibility.”

Women who say they were abused by Dr. Nassar still have lawsuits against U.S.A. Gymnastics, the United States Olympic Committee and others, and the settlement with Michigan State could add pressure in those cases. The settlement by Michigan State, a public university that is the state’s largest, also sent a loud warning to other colleges about the potentially devastating cost of ignoring misconduct.

The agreement comes as officials at the University of Southern California are under fire for failing to report a gynecologist who faced allegations of misconduct for decades, and as other colleges find themselves grappling with a growing number of sexual abuse and assault complaints over the last few years. By late Wednesday, officials at U.S.C. said they had received about 85 complaints about George Tyndall, the gynecologist....

Many women said the university enabled Dr. Nassar’s abuse and for years ignored those who came forward with complaints, and top leaders at Michigan State have lost their jobs over the matter, including Lou Anna K. Simon, the president. Michigan’s attorney general is overseeing a criminal investigation into how Dr. Nassar had been permitted to operate at the university for as long as he did. The federal Education Department is investigating the university’s actions. And the F.B.I. is conducting an internal review of what its agents knew about Dr. Nassar’s conduct and when they knew it, Christopher A. Wray, the agency’s director, told Congress on Wednesday.

The settlement was approved by the university’s elected trustees in a conference call on Tuesday night, but final details still had to be handled.

For the women, some of whom shared their stories of abuse in emotional testimony before judges who sentenced Dr. Nassar to more than 100 years in prison, the financial settlement was a step toward healing, but not a fix for systemic failings at Michigan State.....

For about 20 years, Dr. Nassar preyed on young women who came to him for medical care at a Michigan State clinic. When some patients claimed abuse, Dr. Nassar insisted he was performing legitimate medical treatment, and university officials allowed him to continue seeing patients...

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/larry-nassar-michigan-state-settlement.html

Articles by Neil Brick  http://neilbrick.com  

Child and Ritual Abuse Website https://ritualabuse.us 

What Do We Know about the Class of 2013? Pennsylvania: Priest and Ex-Teacher Get Prison for Abuse

What Do We Know about the High School Class of 2013?
By James R. Marsh on June 13, 2013

This just out from Child Trends; some fascinating and sobering statistics about the high school class of 2013.

BETHESDA, MD — June 11, 2013 — Imagine a senior class of 100. They’re the product of their genetic predispositions, their families, their communities, and all of the opportunities (or lack of opportunities) they’ve encountered since birth. They’ve made both good choices and not-so-good ones. They’re on the threshold of adulthood. But what do we really know about them and what does their future hold?

Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center on children and youth issues, examined a range of available statistics to provide this portrait of the high school class of 2013:
....71 have experienced physical assault; 28 have been victimized sexually; 32 have experienced some form of child maltreatment.
....39 have ever been bullied, physically or emotionally; 16 have been bullied in the past year.
....22 are living in poverty; 10 are living in deep poverty.
....10 report they were victims of dating violence in the past year.
10 report they have been raped
.....3 were victims of violent crime in the past year....
http://www.childlaw.us/2013/06/what-do-we-know-about-the-high.html


Pennsylvania: Priest and Ex-Teacher Get Prison for Abuse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS June 13, 2013

Exceeding sentencing guidelines, a judge on Wednesday gave prison terms to a Roman Catholic priest and a former teacher in a sexual abuse case that brought down a Philadelphia church official. The priest, the Rev. Charles Engelhardt of Wynnewood, and the former teacher, Bernard Shero of Levittown, maintained their innocence, and the judge threw out the most serious conviction against Father Engelhardt for lack of evidence. Still, Father Engelhardt, 66, who had not previously been accused of abusing children, was sentenced to 6 to 12 years in prison. Mr. Shero, convicted of rape, was sentenced to 8 to 16 years....
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/us/pennsylvania-priest-and-ex-teacher-get-prison-for-abuse.html

Boy Scouts sued in sexual abuse case, Scouts to turn over files in case

Boy Scouts sued in sexual abuse case

A Santa Barbara County boy was sexually abused by his Scout leader in 2007. A judge overseeing the lawsuit brought by the boy's family has ordered the Boy Scouts to hand over confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders around the nation.

By Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times February 19, 2012

The mother of a Santa Barbara County teenager says he was wronged twice - once by the 450-pound Boy Scout leader who sexually abused him in 2007, and then by a local Scouts executive who she says told her not to call police.

"He said that wasn't necessary, because the Scouts do their own internal investigation," said the woman, whose name The Times is withholding to protect her son's identity. "I thought that was really weird.... I thought it was really important to call the sheriff right away."

So she did, triggering an investigation of volunteer Scout leader Al Steven Stein, then 29, who was charged with abusing her 92-pound son and two other boys. In 2009, he pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment. He was put on probation but later went to prison after authorities found pictures of nude children on his cellphone data card.

Stein's criminal case is closed....

Nor is it over for the Boy Scouts of America, which is being sued by the boy's family for negligence in a case whose ramifications could reach well beyond Santa Barbara.

The lawsuit contends the Scouts knew or should have known that Stein had put the boy at risk and cites the executive's reluctance to call police as evidence of an effort to conceal widespread sexual abuse....

In January, after reviewing some of the files, a Santa Barbara Superior Court judge rejected the Scouts' argument that the documents are irrelevant to the lawsuit and ordered the organization to turn over the most recent 20 years' worth of records to the boy's lawyers by Feb. 24, with victims' names removed. The judge ordered the lawyers not to disclose the files publicly.

Known as "ineligible volunteer files," the documents have been maintained since the 1920s and are intended to keep suspected molesters and others accused of misconduct out of Scouting. Scouts officials have steadfastly resisted releasing them and won't discuss their contents, citing the privacy rights of victims and the fact that many files are based on unproven allegations.

They strenuously dispute that the files have been used to conceal sexual abuse....

According to the lawsuit, Stein had a history of inappropriate behavior with children he'd met through Scouting, including "making sexual jokes and comments" in front of Scouts and in some cases pulling down their pants. In November 2007, he abused the Santa Barbara County boy, who was 13 at the time....

In early 2008, Stein was charged with a felony, committing a lewd act upon a child, and two misdemeanors including child pornography for photographs he took of a boy's genitals. Two of the victims were Scouts; the third was the son of a family friend.

Stein struck a deal to plead no contest to felony child endangerment and one misdemeanor. He was placed on five years' probation but violated it by having the photos of nude children on his cellphone card. He was sentenced to two years in prison but was paroled early and has been in no trouble since, said Steven Balash, his attorney in the criminal case and the lawsuit....

But the boy's mother said her son has been deeply affected, in part because other families from the troop accused him of lying or "hallucinating" about the abuse. He refuses to go out in public and is now tutored at home, she said....
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-scouts-20120219,0,5265678.story

Scouts to turn over files in Calif. sex abuse case
Associated Press 2/19/12

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by the family of a California boy molested by his troop leader in 2007 has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to hand over confidential files detailing allegations of sexual abuse by Scout leaders around the nation....

The trial is scheduled for April, nearly five years after the boy, then 13, was molested by volunteer troop leader Al Stein at a Boy Scouts Christmas tree sale in Goleta. Stein pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment in 2009....

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, contends the Scouts knew or should have known that Stein had put the boy at risk and cites Tate's reluctance to call police as evidence of an effort to conceal widespread sexual abuse....

The boy's lawyers contend the files will expose the Scouts' "culture of hidden sexual abuse" and its failure to warn boys, their parents and others about pedophiles in the ranks of one of the nation's oldest youth organizations....

Some of the estimated 5,000 files have surfaced in recent years as a result of lawsuits by former Scouts accusing the organization of failing to exclude known pedophiles, detect abuses and report offenders to police, and allowing predators to remain at large.
http://news.yahoo.com/scouts-turn-over-files-calif-sex-abuse-case-201919674.html