EAST LANSING, Mich. – Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Jordyn Wieber has filed a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University in connection with the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case.
The lawsuit alleges that Michigan State, USA Gymnastics, former USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny and former Chairman Paul Parilla "failed to disclose and hid former Olympic Team and MSU team doctor Nassar’s criminal conduct from the public and law enforcement by virtue of defendants' conspiratorial and fraudulent conduct.”
"Defendants' actions allowed Nassar to remain in a position of influence and his unsupervised or negligently supervised conduct with minor participants and members made the molestation and abuse of minor participants possible," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit alleges that USA Gymnastics destroyed Wieber's medical records in order to further conceal the sexual abuse of Nassar.
“My teammates and I were subjected (to) Larry Nassar every single month at the national team training center in Texas," Wieber said. "He was the only male allowed to be present in the athlete dorm rooms to do whatever he wanted. He was allowed to treat us in hotel rooms alone and without any supervision. Nobody was protecting us from being taken advantage of. Nobody was even concerned whether or not we were being sexually abused. I was not protected. My teammates were not protected. My parents trusted USA Gymnastics and Larry Nassar to take care of me and we were betrayed by both. And now, the lack of accountability from USAG and Michigan State, have caused me and many other girls to remain shameful, confused, and disappointed.”
Wieber's attorney, John Manly, accused USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University of attempting to cover up the largest child sex abuse scandal in the history of sports.
“As the largest sexual abuse scandal in the history of sports continues to grow, so does the evidence that Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and their leadership not only ignored reports of Larry Nassar’s criminal conduct but worked actively to hide it from the public and law enforcement.," Manly said. "In Jordyn’s case, the cover up included the alleged destruction of medical records and other documents that may have contained evidence of Nassar’s molestation."
Nassar, who served as the doctor for the Michigan State University team, U.S. National Women’s Gymnastics team and the U.S. Olympic team for two decades, pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges and 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct in Michigan state courts. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges and 300 years in prison on the state charges.
More than 250 women and girls have publicly accused Nassar of sexually assaulting them under the guise of medical treatment. Nassar’s alleged victims include four of the five members of the 2012 gold medal-winning women's gymnastics team -- Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Jordyn Wieber and McKayla Maroney.
Here is a statement from Michigan State University spokesperson Emily Guerrant:
"MSU is committed to coming to a resolution for the survivors. We are deeply sorry for abuse the survivors suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar and are working to make sure that something like this can never happen again. Improvements to our reporting practices, sexual assault investigations and employee training procedures are all underway. In addition, we’re working to add more counseling and therapist staff positions and to reduce the response times for complaints."
You can view the full complaint below.
WARNING: There is some graphic language in the complaint.