Michigan State turns over 45,000 pages to AG, gets extension from lawmakers

By Justin A. Hinkley
Lansing State Journal
February 09, 2018

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/02/09/michigan-state-meet-document-deadline-investigation-spokesman-says/322780002/

Larry Nassar listens as lead prosecutor Angela Povilaitis makes her closing statements Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, the third and final day of sentencing in Eaton County Court in Charlotte, Mich., where Nassar will be sentenced on three counts of sexual assault. Photo by Matthew Dae Smith

EAST LANSING - Michigan State University was expected on Friday to have turned over some 45,000 pages of documents to investigators at the Michigan Attorney General's Office, with more to come on "a rolling basis," according to a letter from the university's attorneys to investigators.

Meanwhile, lawmakers on Friday gave the university until Wednesday to hand over documents in their own investigation into how MSU officials responded to Larry Nassar scandal. 

According to a letter penned by attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and posted online by the university, among some 20,000 pages to be turned over Friday to the Attorney General's Office were:

• University investigatory files related to former MSU physician and convicted sexual abuser Larry Nassar and other MSU employees,
• Personnel files for employees involved in the Nassar case,
• Policies for MSU doctors and the university's sexual misconduct policies,
• Organizational charts, and
• Nassar-related documents that MSU has released through the state's Freedom of Information Act.

Those documents would be in addition to 25,000 pages of calendar entries for William Strampel, who was Nassar's boss at MSU, which the letter says were turned over on Monday. Special agents from the Attorney General's Office and Michigan State Police, who are investigating how Nassar remained employed at the university despite allegations of sexual abuse dating back at least to 1997, also executed a search warrant at the university on Feb. 2.

Interim MSU President John Engler moved to fire Strampel on Friday.

Meanwhile, further documents will be produced "on a rolling basis" as they become available, Fitzgerald wrote to investigators. 

"As we discussed during our meeting, the email and text message communications of over 20 custodians, in particular, are quite voluminous and will take us at least several weeks to review for responsiveness to the Request," Fitzgerald wrote. 

Andrea Bitely, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, couldn't confirm Friday afternoon that any documents had been received, but said investigators do consider the university to be cooperating with the inquiry and have agreed to let MSU officials hand things over "on a rolling basis."

“We understand that we’ve asked for a substantial amount of material for them to produce, and we understand that it can take a period of time,” Bitely said.

Some documents will be redacted because of federal privacy laws for certain student records and for healthcare records, Fitzgerald wrote. 

The university is providing documents through an electronic file transfer service. 

Attorney General Bill Schuette on Jan. 27 named retired Kent County prosecutor William Forsyth as a special prosecutor in charge of investigating how the university has responded to the allegations against Nassar and others accused of sexual assault. On the same day, Forsyth's team sent the university a letter demanding documents and setting Friday as the deadline to hand most of them over. 

Some of the MSU officials targeted by investigators are among the people who women and girls said they told about Nassar's behavior years before he was fired by the university and charged with sexual assault in late 2016.

In addition to Strampel, Forsyth is seeking records on:

• Kathie Klages, the former MSU gymnastics coach to whom two women say they raised concerns about Nassar to in 1997,
• Brooke Lemmen, one of Nassar's former colleagues who supported Nassar in a 2014 Title IX investigation later removed medical files from the university at Nassar's request while Nassar was under criminal investigation; 
• Lianna Hadden, an MSU athletic trainer to whom at least two of Nassar's victims said they reported concerns about Nassar;
• Jeffrey Kovan, an MSU physician who first heard the complaint about Nassar that launched the 2014 Title IX investigation; 
• Lisa DeStafano, chairwoman of MSU's Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Department who also supported Nassar in the 2014 Title IX investigation;
• Destiny Teachnor-Hauk, an athletic trainer to whom one woman said she had raised concerns about Nassar in the early 2000s;
• Sue Carter, a journalism professor who recently resigned from the MSU Athletic Council, and
• Shelly Applebaum, the executive associate athletic director/senior women's administrator who oversees "gender equity, diversity, governance and strategic planning initiatives," according to the MSU website. 

Investigators are also seeking records on former MSU President Lou Anna Simon and former athletic director Mark Hollis, both of whom resigned recently in the wake of the Nassar scandal. Simon stepped down from the presidency but under terms of her contract retains a tenured faculty position in the College of Education. Hollis retired.

In recent weeks, Nassar was sentenced to decades in prison on child pornography and sexual assault charges. He is now at the Milan Federal Correctional Institution near Ann Arbor, but will eventually be sent to another federal prison. His federal sentence lasts until March 23, 2069. 

In addition to Forsyth, the Michigan Legislature, U.S. Congress, NCAA and U.S. Department of Education all are investigating the university. 

Friday also was the deadline for MSU to hand over several documents to state House committees leading the legislative inquiry. The university missed that deadline but state Reps. Klint Kesto, R-Commerce Township, and Kim LaSata, R-Bainbridge Township, gave the university until Wednesday to hand over all records regarding allegations made against Nassar in the years 2014 through 2017.

“This information is important to our ability to improve state law and build a better, safer system for crime victims and students," LaSata said in a written statement. "We look forward to reviewing this information, finding points of failure in the university’s process and beginning work on important reforms that can ensure these mistakes will never be made again. We fully anticipate all requested information being turned over by Wednesday. If it is not, our committees will meet shortly to discuss the next steps in compelling the university to do the right thing.”

On Monday, Engler's first day on the job at MSU, he sent notice to all university employees that they should hold on to all documents that might be relevant to the investigations and should cooperate fully with all investigators. On Friday, the university suspended Suresh Mukherji from his role as chairman of the Department of Radiology for failing to adhere to that directive, an Engler spokesman said without offering specifics.

Nassar, a once-renowned sports medicine doctor employed by MSU, served as team physician to several U.S. Olympics women's gymnastics teams and also treated youth athletes at Twistars gym in Dimondale. 

An Indianapolis Star investigation of USA Gymnastics, begun in 2016, uncovered widespread sexual abuse of athletes by coaches and others and failures to alert authorities. The IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network, revealed the first allegations of abuse by Nassar, triggering the criminal prosecution and setting off a wave of resignations and inquiries at MSU and USA Gymnastics.