Sex abuser Larry Nassar in Florida federal prison altercation: Report | World news

Sports doctor Larry Nassar, accused of having sex with female gymnasts and Olympic stars, was stabbed multiple times during a confrontation with another inmate at a federal prison in Florida.

Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press the attack took place Sunday at the Coleman United States Penitentiary. People said he was in stable condition on Monday.

One of the people said Nassar had been stabbed in the back and chest. The jail is experiencing staffing shortages, and one of the people familiar with the matter said officers assigned to the unit where Nassar is being held are working overtime shifts.

The people were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack or the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

Nassar is serving decades in prison for convictions in state and federal courts. He embraced sexually assaulting athletes when he worked at Michigan State University and at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians. Separately, Nassar pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has experienced significant staff shortages over the past few years, an issue that came to a head when disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in a federal prison in New York in 2019. An Associated Press investigation in 2021 show almost one. -A third of government corrections officers are vacant nationwide, forcing prisons to use cooks, teachers, nurses and other workers to protect inmates. Staff shortages have hampered response to emergencies at other prisons, including suicides.

On Sunday, both officers were working in the same unit with Nassar running dispatch operations. One of the workers was on the third straight shift, working a 16-hour day, one of the people said. And another employee was on their second straight shift, the person said.

During victim impact statements in 2018, several athletes testified that during Nassar’s more than two decades of sexual abuse they had told adults, including coaches and athletic trainers, what was happening but that they did not make a report.

More than 100 women, including Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, are collectively seeking more than $1 billion from the federal government for the FBI’s failure to stop Nassar when agents learned of the allegations against him in 2015. by Michigan State University police in 2016, more than a year later.

The Justice Department’s inspector general said in July 2021 that the FBI made “fundamental” errors in investigating the sexual abuse allegations against Nassar and did not treat the case with the “highest priority.” More athletes said they were defrauded before the FBI swung into action.

The inspector general’s investigation was prompted by allegations that the FBI failed to address complaints made in 2015 against Nassar. USA Gymnastics conducted its own internal investigation, and the organization’s president, Stephen Penny, reported the allegations to the FBI field office in Indianapolis. But it took months before the company opened a formal investigation.

At least 40 girls and women say they were molested over a 14-month period while the FBI is aware of other sexual abuse allegations involving Nassar. Officials at USA Gymnastics contacted FBI agents in Los Angeles in June 2016 after eight months of inaction from agents in Indianapolis.

The FBI acknowledged behavior that was “disrespectful and reckless” toward America’s premier law enforcement agency.

The state of Michigan, which allegedly missed opportunities for years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee shared a $380 million share.

In June 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a final appeal from Nassar. Lawyers for Nassar said they acted unfairly in 2018 and deserved a new hearing, based on vindictive comments by a judge who called him a “monster” who would “languish” in prison like the Wicked Witch in “The Wizard of Oz.” “

“I just signed his death warrant,” Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said of Nassar’s 40-year sentence.

The state Supreme Court said Nassar’s appeal was a “closer question” and had “concerns” about the judge’s conduct. But the court also noted that Aquilina, despite his provocative comments, stood by the judicial agreement of the lawyers working in the case.

“We decline to use additional judicial resources and further subject the victims in this case to additional trauma where the questions at hand are no more than an academic exercise,” the court said in a two-page order. .

More than 150 victims spoke or submitted statements during an extraordinary seven-day hearing in the Aquilina court more than four years ago.

“It’s over. Almost six years after I filed the police report, it’s finally over,” said Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar.