Recordings show coworker removed files upon Larry Nassar's request
Police recordings obtained from Michigan State University revealed a conversation that involved disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State physician Larry Nassar requesting that patient files be removed from Michigan State shortly after he was fired from his position at the university in September of 2016.
These police recordings, which were made by Michigan State police investigators when Nassar's coworkers were being questioned after he was fired, were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
In these recordings, Dr. Brooke Lemmen, who worked with Nassar when he worked at Michigan State, revealed that she removed patient files from the clinic at which she worked with Nassar upon his request. However, she did not give Nassar those files.
Lemmen resigned shortly after revealing this. Here is what she said to investigators nearly two years ago, according to WOOD-TV.
"He wanted to review the chart on who he thought the Jane Doe Olympian was because all of his charts from USA gymnastics were here.
"I thought as I was here, 'He shouldn't have those paper charts and if they're here anybody can get them. And so I said, 'I will take those paper charts,' and I took them and put them in my house."
Dr. Jeffrey Kovan and Dr. Doug Dietzel, who worked with Nassar and are still employed Michigan State, were also interviewed by investigators. What Kovan stated was revealed yesterday.
Dietzel revealed that Lemmen was the only person who was removing items from the clinic at the time. Here is what had to say about her, according to WOOD-TV.
"She was coming over to clean out some of his pictures and stuff that were in the rooms. That's all that was discussed at that time. I think it was after the fact she mentioned that she had taken records. Just to keep them away from Larry, so he wouldn't have access to them."
Nassar was arrested in December of 2016, which was three months after he was fired from Michigan State. He was fired from Michigan State shortly after Rachael Denhollander became the first person to publicly accuse him of sexual assault when she told her story to The Indianapolis Star shortly before they published it in September of 2016.
The 54-year-old has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 300 people, of whom many are female gymnasts, under the guise of medical treatment for more than two decad. Olympic champion gymnasts Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber are among those who have accused Nassar of sexual assault.
Nassar is currently serving the first of three prison sentences that he was recently issued. This sentence is the 60-year federal prison sentence that he was issued this past December on three child pornography charges.
Nassar is serving this federal prison sentence at United States Penitentiary, Tucson in Tucson, Arizona, which is a maximum-security federal prison that offers a sex offender program for sexual predators such as Nassar.
The other two prison sentences that Nassar was issued are state prison sentences. In January, he was sentenced to between 40 and 175 years in state prison on seven sexual assault charges, and in February, he was sentenced to between an additional 40 and 125 years in state prison on three more sexual assault charges.
Roughly two weeks ago, Nassar was also charged with six counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child in Texas.