Michigan State University (MSU) filed a motion Monday in an attempt to dismiss lawsuits from Larry Nassar’s second wave of accusers, arguing it is not responsible for his actions no matter how awful they were.
“Although Nassar’s actions were repugnant and merit the heavy criminal penalties imposed upon him, the law does not support Plaintiffs’ attempts to hold the MSU Defendants liable for his wrongs,” the school’s court filing said.
MSU argues that it can’t be held responsible for Nassar’s activities that happened when he was not at the school. In addition, the school thinks it’s immune because the plaintiffs did not report his crimes to the appropriate school officials.
The “second wave” refers to plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit after MSU’s initial $500 million settlement with Nassar’s accusers in December 2018. The majority of the money, $425 million, went to 332 victims.
A lawyer who represents a group of the second-wave plaintiffs told the Detroit Free Press that she does not like the way the school is handling the situation.
“The filings by MSU show a complete disregard for the mental and emotional well-being of the Nassar survivors,” Donna MacKenzie said. “MSU should be ashamed by the way it continues to represent to the public that it cares about settlement and healing, while at the same time paying their lawyers thousands of dollars to aggressively defend and file motions to dismiss the survivors’ claims in court.”
MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant told the Detroit News the school has settled with 55 second-wave victims and is working to settle with the rest of the plaintiffs.
“We are still working within the parameters of that $75 million that was set aside in the agreement,” she said. “We continue to be focused on it. It’s a priority for us to settle with all of them.”
Currently, the serial pedophile is serving a 60-year prison sentence for child pornography. If he survives his current sentence, he faces either a 40 to 145-year sentence or a 40 to 125-year sentence for sexual assaults.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Follow Zachery on Twitter.
