Victims’ Father Lunges at Sex Abuser Larry Nassar in Michigan Courtroom
“Let me have that son of a bitch! I want that son of a bitch,” the dad screamed as deputies struggled to pin him to the floor. His two girls looked on in horror.
Reuters
During the third day of victim-impact statements in serial sexual-abuser Larry Nassar’s latest sentencing hearing, the father of three victims attacked the former Olympic doctor, screaming, “Let me have that son of a bitch! I want that son of a bitch.”
Randall Margraves, the father of Madison and Lauren Margraves, asked the judge on Friday “to grant me five minutes in a locked room with this demon.”
When Judge Janice Cunningham said no, he asked, “Would you give me one minute?”
Then Margraves lunged. Deputies grabbed him and pinned him to the ground before he reached the former team physician for USA Gymnastics, as his daughters looked on in horror. But he was still shouting and fighting: “Let me have that son of a bitch! I want that son of a bitch. Give me one minute with him.”
Lead prosecutor and Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis told the remaining survivors in the gallery to voice their frustration through words, not violence.
“You cannot behave like this,” Povilaitis said, according to The Lansing State Journal. “This is letting him have his power over us.”
After a brief break, Cunningham also admonished the group. “We cannot react by using physical violence and assault against someone who is and has performed criminal acts,” she said. “That’s not how our system works.”
Earlier in the hearing, his daughters Lauren and Madison spoke of their abuse by Nassar. Nassar also abused their third sister Morgan Margraves, who spoke last week at the hearing in an Ingham County court before the sports doctor was sentenced to a maximum of 175 years in prison on seven counts of criminal sexual conduct.
Lauren called the 54-year-old a “poison to this earth” on Friday, adding: “You have underestimated how powerful and strong we are.”
Her sister added, “All the signs I missed will haunt me forever.”
Cunningham said Wednesday that a total of 265 people have come forward to accuse Nassar. He has pleaded guilty to a total of 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct, including the seven in Ingham County and three in Eaton County. He was separately sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography.
More than 60 women are expected to deliver victim-impact statements in Eaton County, BuzzFeed News reports. The hearing will likely last through next Tuesday.
UPDATE: Later Friday afternoon, Margraves apologized to the court.
“I lost control. I apologize 100 times,” he said. “I calmed down. I’m embarrassed. I’m not here to upstage my daughters. I’m here to help them heal.”
Cunningham said to Margraves, “It’s not acceptable we combat assault with assault.” She will not punish him for the outburst.