Where Is Larry Nassar Now? Inside the Former USA Gymnastics Doctor’s Life in Prison Nearly a Decade After His Sex-Crime Convictions
Larry Nassar, once one of the most trusted physicians in elite gymnastics, is now one of the most notorious sexual abusers in modern sports history. The former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor received sentences totaling up to 360 years after hundreds of gymnasts and athletes accused him of sexually assaulting them under the guise of medical treatment.
His crimes triggered lawsuits, resignations and sweeping leadership changes at both Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics. Nassar is currently incarcerated at a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania, where he remains after surviving two attacks by fellow inmates.
From Team Doctor to Convicted Predator
Nassar’s involvement with gymnastics began in the late 1970s, when he was a student at North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, Mich. At his older brother’s urging, he became a student athletic trainer for the school’s women’s gymnastics team in 1978 and eventually earned a varsity letter for his work.
He earned a kinesiology degree from Michigan State University in 1985 and joined the U.S. national gymnastics team as an athletic trainer the next year. By 1988, he was volunteering at the Olympic trials and working with the prominent Michigan gymnastics club Twistars. While building his reputation in the sport, he also attended medical school at Michigan State, earning his osteopathic medical degree in 1993.
After finishing his residency, Nassar became USA Gymnastics’ national medical coordinator in 1996. A year later, he was named a team physician and assistant professor at Michigan State, according to USA Today. He would remain at both institutions for nearly two decades.
Survivors Come Forward
Public allegations against Nassar first surfaced in September 2016, when two former gymnasts told the Indianapolis Star that he had molested them as children in the 1990s and early 2000s, NPR reported. They were Rachel Denhollander and a former Olympic gymnast later identified as 2000 Olympian Jamie Dantzscher.
In the report, the women alleged that Nassar had groped and fondled them, penetrated them with ungloved fingers and talked about oral sex when they were alone. Dantzscher filed a lawsuit in California, while Denhollander filed a complaint with Michigan State police.
Their stories followed an earlier Indianapolis Star article in August 2016 that exposed sexual abuse within USA Gymnastics at the coaching level. After reading it, Denhollander emailed the newspaper’s tip line. Separately, the paper learned of Dantzscher’s account as she prepared to sue Nassar over abuse that occurred between 1994 and 2000.
“That was the moment when I thought, ‘Oh, my God, we might really be on to something,’” Indianapolis Star reporter Mark Alesia told NPR.
The article opened the floodgates. By 2018, as many as 265 victims had shared stories of abuse by Nassar. His accusers included Olympians Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Gabby Douglas.
“I didn’t think I was being molested. I didn’t know,” Raisman said when she revealed her abuse. “He was a doctor. I never would have thought that a doctor would misuse his power so much.”
Criminal Charges Mount
In November 2016, the first criminal charges were filed against Nassar. He was charged with three counts of criminal sexual conduct for what Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette described as “predatory, menacing criminal acts involving a minor, a young girl under the age of 13,” according to NBC News.
The charges involved abuse that allegedly occurred at Nassar’s Holt, Mich., home between 1998 and 2005. The victim was not a gymnast or a patient. Later court testimony revealed she was a family friend who was assaulted almost weekly from age 6 until she was 12, The Detroit News reported.
Schuette said the initial charges were only the “tip of the iceberg.” At the time of Nassar’s arrest, authorities said as many as 50 gymnasts and patients had come forward with sexual abuse complaints, though those cases were still under investigation.
By February 2017, 22 new sexual assault charges had been filed against Nassar, the Lansing State Journal reported. The charges related to abuse that reportedly occurred at his Michigan State sports medicine practice and at Twistars. Five counts involved girls under 13; the other victims were between 13 and 16. All were allegedly assaulted during medical appointments, when Nassar reportedly performed digital vaginal or anal penetration without consent.
Separately, in December 2016, Nassar was indicted on federal child pornography charges. According to the indictment, he allegedly received or attempted to receive child pornography and possessed thousands of images of child sexual abuse, including images of a child younger than 12. An FBI agent later testified that investigators found at least 37,000 images and videos on Nassar’s hard drives, including videos of him sexually assaulting girls under 12, per the Lansing State Journal.
In February 2017, federal prosecutors added a third child pornography charge, alleging that Nassar had deleted and destroyed child pornography files on his laptop and several external hard drives.
Guilty Pleas and Sentencing
Nassar pleaded guilty in both the federal and state cases against him in 2017.
He first pleaded guilty to the three federal child pornography charges in July 2017. Under sentencing guidelines at the time, he faced a maximum of 27 years, ABC News reported. But at his December 2017 sentencing, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff ordered him to serve 60 years in federal prison.
In November 2017, Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Michigan’s Ingham County Circuit Court. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to add charges for dozens of other victims who had come forward. A week later, he pleaded guilty to three additional counts of criminal sexual conduct in Eaton County under a similar agreement, according to the Lansing State Journal.
“For all those involved, I’m so horribly sorry,” Nassar said in Ingham County Circuit Court. “I want them to heal. I want this community to heal.”
His Ingham County sentencing hearing lasted seven days in January 2018. During that time, 156 victims gave impact statements, including Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman.
“You never healed me. You took advantage of our passions and our dreams,” Raisman told Nassar directly in court. “Imagine feeling like you have no power, and no voice. Well you know what Larry, I have my power and my voice, and I will use them.”
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced Nassar to up to 175 years in prison, telling him his “crimes have cut into the core of this community and families” and that she “wouldn’t send [her] dogs to you, sir.”
“I just signed your death warrant,” she added as she handed down the sentence.
In February 2018, Judge Janice Cunningham sentenced Nassar to up to 125 years in prison for his sex crimes in Eaton County.
Where Is Larry Nassar Now?
Nassar is currently held at a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., after being moved several times following his sentencings. He is expected to remain behind bars for the rest of his life, whether in federal or state custody.
After his Eaton County sentencing, Nassar was transferred from the Milan Federal Correctional Institution near Ann Arbor, Mich., to a federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., USA Today reported. But after he was released into the general population at United States Penitentiary Tucson, he was physically attacked by other inmates. An investigation concluded he was no longer safe at the Arizona facility, according to The Detroit News.
Nassar was then moved to Coleman II U.S. Penitentiary in central Florida, the Washington Post reported. In July 2023, he was attacked a second time. He was reportedly stabbed multiple times in the neck, chest and back by another inmate after making a comment while watching the women’s Wimbledon tennis tournament.
“I wish there were girls playing,” he allegedly said before the attack.
Other inmates intervened, according to the Associated Press, and correctional officers performed life-saving measures before Nassar was taken to a hospital. He suffered multiple injuries, including a collapsed lung, but survived.
After the stabbing, Nassar was moved from USP Coleman to USP Lewisburg in Pennsylvania, where he remains, The Daily Item reported. His federal release date is listed as Jan. 30, 2068, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. If he is still alive then—at age 104—he would begin serving his Michigan state prison term of up to 175 years, the Washington Post reported.
In a September 2026 ruling, Michigan’s highest court removed Nassar and more than 20,000 other sex offenders from the state’s public registry. The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that offenders cannot be forced to register under newer versions of the state’s sex offender registration law if their crimes occurred before the law took effect, per the Washington Post.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
Read the original article on People.