Molester's Fate Sealed After Judge Gives Victim's Coach a Mic in Courtroom
His sentencing hearing is scheduled to last through the week, but Larry Nassar’s fate is already sealed.
The former USA Gymnastics team doctor, who has admitted molesting multiple girls and young women over the course of his career, is facing a courtroom full of his victims and their supporters this week in Ingham County, Michigan, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
But during a day of rage expressed by Nassar’s victims on Wednesday, it might have been at male Olympics coach – a man who had sent more than 100 girls to be treated by Nassar over the years – who summed things up best.
“For the record,” Brennan addressed Nassar, according to MLive. “Go to hell.”
Brennan’s addition to the lineup of speakers was unexpected at the hearing. He was originally at the stand to support one of his former athletes, Gwen Anderson, as she made a tearful statement how Nassar molested her.
When he saw Nassar attempting to avoid Anderson’s face, Brennan snapped.
“Look at her!” he screamed, according to The Daily Mail.
Instead of reproving Brennan, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina offered him a chance to make a statement of his own.
Brennan made the most of it.
“When I graduated from grad school, he was an adviser of mine, he’s been a mentor of mine. I’ve done clinics with him for years in the past. And I’ve probably sent well over 100 kids to him over the years. So the guilt I feel for that is hard to fathom,” Brennan said, according to the Mail.
“So, he didn’t only deceive these girls, which is honest to God, that’s the worst of the worst, is what he did to these girls, so they have the voice. But what you did to everybody else who trusted you and sent girls your way is disgusting. Reprehensible. Unforgivable. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
And that nailed it.
Obviously, the real victims here are the girls and young women Nassar assaulted over the years. He was trusted to look after the physical health of athletes whose entire being was wrapped up in their bodies’ ability to perform some of the most difficult exercises imaginable. He abused that trust to horrendous ends.
Those victims included Olympic stars who became virtual household names in the United States like Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles, but also includes lesser known athletes whose suffering at Nassar’s hands was just as real.
But a child molester even victimizes people he’s never laid a hand on, by abusing their trust – in some cases for decades – to enable him to continue to be in a position to physically assault his actual victims.
Now, Nassar will likely never breathe free air again as long as he lives. He was already sentenced in a federal court to 60 years in prison for possession of child pornography in December, according to The Daily Mail.
But judging by her behavior toward this monster during his sentencing hearing this week, Judge Aquilina is going to do everything in her power to make sure of that.
When victim Amanda Thomashow, one of the earliest to report Nassar’s crimes in 2014, was taking her turn on the stand Wednesday, she asked Aquilina to impose the maximum sentence.
At this point it seems a foregone conclusion.
“He will never be free,” the judge said, according to the Mail. “The next judge he faces will be God.”
And it may be then that Nassar remembers the words Brennan spoke in that Ingham County courtroom on Wednesday.
“For the record,” he said. “Go to hell.”
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