Nassar loses another appeal of child pornography sentencing
GRAND RAPIDS – Convicted serial molester Larry Nassar has lost another appeal.
The former doctor for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics was sentenced to an effective life sentence in 2017 and 2018 in federal and state courts for child pornography and sexual assault. He is accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of young girls and women.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff ruled Nassar had no grounds to appeal in his federal case on claims of ineffective counsel among other issues.
“…Defendant’s attorneys did not render ineffective assistance of counsel,” Neff wrote, noting a statement she made when she sentenced him in 2018.
“Mr. Nassar was, is, and in my view will continue to be a real and present danger (sic) to children," she said at the time. "And it is through consecutive sentencing that I can take into account the need to deter this man from harming innocent girls and young women for the rest of his life. Based on his behavior over a long period of time, he has demonstrated that he should never again have access to children.”
Nassar was arrested in 2016 and in July 2017 pleaded guilty in federal court to three charges: obtaining and possessing child pornography and destroying computer files to hamper the investigation. Neff later sentenced him to 60 years in federal prison, three 20-year terms to be served one after another.
The 6th U.S. Circuit previously upheld an earlier appeal of Nassar’s sentencing by Neff.
Nassar's federal court-appointed appellate attorney filed an appeal in April of 2018, arguing Neff erred when she used his 10 sexual assault convictions in state courts in Ingham and Eaton counties, for which he had not been sentenced at the time, in calculating the sentence guideline range. Nassar's attorney also argued that it was "procedurally unreasonable" for the federal judge to order Nassar's state sentences to be served after the federal sentence.
The U.S. Attorney's Office, in response, argued that Neff acted within her discretion.
The appeals court agreed. "In deciding to impose consecutive sentences, the district court relied on the duration, enormity, and gravity of Nassar’s criminal conduct; the serious harm that Nassar inflicted on his victims; and the serious safety threat that Nassar presents to the public," the appeals judges wrote in their opinion.
"... The district court agreed with the government’s observation that at least some of Nassar’s activities occurred outside of the State of Michigan, and thus at least implicitly recognized that Nassar’s state sentences for first-degree criminal sexual conduct would not account for all of his criminal behavior."
Nassar, formerly of Holt, was sentenced in January 2018 by Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina to 40 to 175 years in prison. She told him she had just signed his "death warrant."
The comment came after she had heard from 156 women and girls during a sentencing hearing that then-Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis intentionally crafted to give survivors a chance to confront Nassar.
That sentence, and her comments, have survived appeals by Nassar’s attorneys.
Days after the Ingham County sentencing, Eaton County Circuit Judge Janice Cunningham sentenced Nassar to 40 to 125 years in prison on three convictions. His efforts to appeal that sentence were unsuccessful .
Michigan State, which was accused of missing chances over many 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 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.
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 became aware of allegations against him in 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Larry Nassar loses another appeal of federal child pornography sentencing
