Police: Larry Nassar wasn't on Michigan's sex offender list because he's jailed out of state
Michigan State Police say disgraced former doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar was never taken off the Michigan Sex Offender list because he was never in the online database to begin with.
The reason is that Nassar is currently in federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where he is serving a federal sentence on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges. This sentence, issued in 2017, overrides his State of Michigan charges and resulting sentencing.
"Larry Nassar is currently serving a federal sentence out of state, which must be served in its entirety before any credit is issued on his sentence under his Michigan convictions," Michigan State Police said Friday in response to complaints voiced on social media on Sunday by the Eaton County (Michigan) Prosecutor's Office.
The Eaton County Prosecutor's Office said that the reason Nassar could not be found on the list is that the dates of the offenses he was convicted of fell under a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling that resulted in more than 20,000 names being taken off the public database.
As the conversation continued on the office's Facebook page, the agency provided a screen image that showed no active listing for Nassar and claimed he "was on the registry until last week."
"His conduct occurred before 2011 despite his convictions coming after," the prosecutor's office said.
The prosecutor's office is led by Doug Lloyd, who is the Republican nominee for Michigan attorney general in the Nov. 3 election.
Michigan State Police said that those who are convicted but currently not living in, working in, going to school in, or incarcerated in Michigan "do not have the duty to register in Michigan under Michigan's Sex Offender Registry Act (SORA) and would not be visible on Michigan's public Sex Offender Registry (SOR)."
Should those circumstances change, and they fit the requirements for mandatory registration, they would be expected to do so, the MSP said.
The Larry Nassar investigation
The Larry Nassar investigation gained national attention, given the dozens of women who spoke up at court hearings or other events regarding his conduct, his connection to the national gymnastics team, and the civil lawsuits that resulted.
Nassar was a team doctor for the USA Gymnastics Team, which trains the country's Olympic participants, until 2014, and team physician at Michigan State University until 2016.
A former gymnast made the initial report that led to a months-long investigation and, eventually, multiple state and federal charges, including cases stemming from Ingham County and Eaton County. The accusations involved sexual assault of women and girls who were in his care.
During one of the court hearings that resulted, Nassar said the actions he took against the gymnasts were against medical protocols and done for his personal satisfaction alone.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina called him "possibly the most prolific serial child sex abuser in history" during sentencing for one of the cases that resulted.
