Quid Pro Quo, Again
Dr. Lawrence Gerard Nassar’s molestation of young girls dates back to the 1990’s and at least 14 of his victims reported him to various figures of authority at MSU over the intervening years. In 2014, one of those authority figures finally took a Nassar victim seriously enough to report him to MSU’s Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives. OIII was the MSU bureaucracy then responsible for investigating Title IX discrimination complaints. That accuser also reported the incident to MSU’s police department two months later.
The MSU Title IX investigation was a whitewash. The author of the report, Kristine M. Moore (currently MSU’s Assistant General Counsel) went so far as to issue two reports – a more truthful one to Nassar and another, abbreviated version to the victim. At some point in 2014, recently departed MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon was informed of the circumstances and did little or nothing. Nassar continued to molest his female patients; at least 12 more before he was finally arrested.
Some time in 2015, MSU’s campus police department finally made a criminal referral to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office. Stuart Dunning III’s office did nothing, perhaps because he was just too preoccupied with his much beloved prostitutes. And his subordinates were perhaps too busy covering for his wretched behavior. In March 2016, the Ingham County Sheriff arrested Dunning and his lawyer brother for pandering. Dunning plead out and resigned from office.
Ingham County Circuit Court judges selected Gretchen Whitmer, a current Democratic candidate for Michigan Governor, to serve out the remainder of Dunning’s term. Whitmer averred that Dunning’s distractions did not affect any ICPO case and immediately signaled her virtue by establishing a new domestic violence unit within the ICPO. You are allowed to be skeptical.
MSU Campus Police Chief Jim Dunlap returned to the new, interim Ingham County Prosecutor – Ms. Whitmer – with his department’s referral of the Nassar molestation incidents. He got blown off by Whitmer and her chief assistant, Lisa McCormick. Dunlap was convinced that Whitmer’s office was not interested in pursuing the molestation charges because they were “much more difficult to take to trial” than the kiddie porn charges then being developed by the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan.
Whitmer and McCormick were entirely content to allow Nassar to be prosecuted for kiddie porn by the Feds, but both now claim they did not file molestation charges against Nassar because of ‘jurisdictional issues’.
Dunlap stalked off and contacted Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office that same evening. He wanted Nassar fully charged for all his offenses. AG Schuette had no qualms about going after Nassar. At the time, there were only 5 or 6 molestation complaints against Nassar, all of which arose from MSU. The Eaton County Twistar cases were developed after Schuette took over the prosecution. There were no ‘jurisdictional issues’ when Whitmer blew off Dunlap.
The rest is history. But is it the entire history?