‘SECRET DECISIONS’

Larry Nassar Survivors Sue Michigan State Over Unreleased Documents

“By protecting the 6,000 secret documents and anyone named in them, the board is adding to survivors’ trauma with their lack of institutional accountability,” a victim said.

Survivors of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Michigan State University, where the disgraced sports doctor was employed, alleging leadership withheld thousands of documents about the abuse. The plaintiffs—both victims and parents—are arguing that university trustees “made a behind-closed-doors secret decision not to release” more than 6,000 records despite knowing it was a violation of state law, an attorney representing the group said in a statement. In April, after declining to disclose the documents to the Michigan attorney general’s office, the board of trustees said that the trove was protected by attorney-client privilege. “By protecting the 6,000 secret documents and anyone named in them, the board is adding to survivors’ trauma with their lack of institutional accountability,” survivor Melissa Brown Hudecz said in a statement to the Associated Press. In 2018, Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for his abuse. Later that year, Michigan State agreed to settle with his victims for $500 million. The new lawsuit, its plaintiffs said, is not about money, but accountability.