Disgraced former Team USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been removed from Michigan’s sex offender registry.
Nassar served as the national gymnastics team’s doctor from 1996 to 2014, using his position to sexually abuse hundreds of young athletes, including Olympic medalists Simone Biles and Aly Raisman.
He is serving multiple decades-long prison sentences after convictions in federal and state courts for sexual abuse and possessing child pornography.
The 63-year-old is among more than 20,000 people removed from Michigan’s sex offender registry after the Michigan State Police purged individuals whose offenses occurred before July 1, 2011, according to the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office.
The removal followed a September 9 ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court, which found that amendments to the Sex Offender Registration Act enacted in 2021 could not be applied retroactively to crimes committed before that date. The decision prompted a large-scale purge of the registry.
The Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office criticized the ruling in a social media statement, saying: “The Michigan Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate SORA requirements for these offenders is deeply concerning. Our community, along with the victims of these crimes, expected the registry to provide a measure of protection and awareness—assurances that have now been removed by the Court’s ruling.”
Larry Nassar has been removed from Michigan’s sex offender registry
Nassar is serving decades in prison after being convicted of multiple crimes
Michigan State Police says the registry is intended to “assist the public” in preventing future criminal sexual acts by convicted sex offenders. It generally includes a person’s legal name, photograph, primary and work addresses, age, physical description, court information and records related to the conviction.
“His conduct occurred before 2011 despite his convictions coming after,” the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office said in confirming Nassar’s removal, according to CBS News.
The prosecutor’s office said the Supreme Court could have adopted a different interpretation that would have allowed certain sex offenders to remain on the registry.
More than 150 gymnasts were abused by Nassar during his three-decade career. He admitted sexually assaulting athletes while working at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics.
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Nassar also admitted possessing child pornography. More than 100 women later sought more than $1 billion from the federal government, alleging that the FBI failed to act on allegations against him.
In 2017, a federal court sentenced Nassar to 60 years in prison for possessing child sexual abuse material. The following year, two Michigan courts sentenced him to up to 175 years and up to 125 years, respectively, for molesting female gymnasts under his care.
After the federal sentencing, U.S. Attorney Birge said: “Today was a day of reckoning for Larry Nassar. He more than deserves this punishment for what he did.
“He consumed child pornography on a massive scale. We found 37,000 images of child pornography on his computers. Insatiable hunger of that nature simply encourages those who produce such images to continue to sexually exploit children. Compounding his danger to the public,
“Nassar was an insidious hands-on child predator in his own right. He took advantage of family friendships. And he treated his license to practice medicine as a license to sexually molest children. Thanks to the brave victims who came forward, we learned the full scope of his depravity. The breadth and dark depth of his heinous acts are extraordinary.”
Larry Nassar is pictured in court during his sentencing hearing in Michigan in January 2018
Olympic champion Simone Biles was among the hundreds of athletes abused by Nassar
In April 2024, the U.S. Justice Department announced a $138.7 million settlement with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling sexual assault allegations against Nassar in 2015 and 2016. The delay allowed the sports doctor to continue abusing victims before his arrest.
When combined with other settlements, $1billion now has been set aside by various organizations to compensate hundreds of women who said Nassar assaulted them under the guise of treatment for sports injuries.
Simone Biles publicly broke her silence in January 2018, revealing in a powerful tweet that she was one of Nassar’s victims.
‘It took me a long time to write that, probably a couple of days, because every time I would go to write, I would start balling, and I couldn’t get through it,’ she said.
Biles also noted that she was heartbroken over having to continue to train at the ranch, the former USA Gymnastics national training center where she and her teammates were abused by the disgraced doctor.