USOC seemingly attempting to 'stir the pot', cause unnecessary problems
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) recently filed to remove themselves as defendants in the lawsuits against them that were filed by former Olympic champion gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber as well as three others who filed lawsuits against them and identified themselves as Jane Doe.
These women all filed lawsuits against the USOC for their role in the Larry Nassar sexual assault scandal. They claim that the organization should have done more to prevent Nassar's predatory actions upon finding out about them.
But while the USOC claim, according to NBC Sports, that they should be part of “discussions concerning moral and social responsibility for sexual abuse, including legitimate questions about what could have been done to recognize and stop Nassar’s abuse", they also contend that they should not be held responsible for what Nassar did because he never worked for them and his actions were not foreseeable.
Here is what USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky had to say about these filings, according to NBC Sports.
“Our filing addresses an entirely different question, namely the legal responsibility for Nassar’s crimes."
Here is some of what the USOC had to say in regard to filing to dismiss these lawsuits, according to The Blast.
“Nassar was a full-time employee of Michigan State University and working as the USA Gymnastics team doctor. Both of these organizations are separate and independent from the United States Olympic Committee, which neither employed nor controlled Nassar.”
"A defendant has no duty to protect against the criminal acts of a third party absent a special relationship. Here, the Complaint fails to allege the basis of a special relationship between Plaintiff and USOC.”
"The Complaint fails to allege any of the requisite mental states which range from an intent to aid Nassar (Masha’s Law), an intent to deceive Plaintiff (constructive fraud), or recklessness as to Nassar’s behavior (intentional infliction of emotional distress). In fact, the Complaint expressly states that USOC was not even aware of Nassar’s misconduct until USA Gymnastics terminated its relationship with him and reported him to law enforcement in 2015.”
Nassar, the 54-year-old disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician, has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 300 people, many of whom female gymnasts, under the guise of medical treatments for more than two decades.
Nassar has been issued three prison sentences for his predatory actions. He is currently serving the 60-year federal prison sentence that he was issued this past December on three child pornography charges.
He is doing so at United States Penitentiary, Tucson in Tucson, Arizona, where he was just physically assaulted after he was released to the prison's general population earlier this week. Until earlier this week, he had not been released to the prison's general population since arriving at the prison over five months ago.
Nassar was also sentenced to between 40 and 175 years in state prison back in January on seven sexual assault charges. He was issued this sentence following after a seven-day sentencing hearing during which 169 people delivered victim impact statements in front of him in an Ingham County, Michigan courtroom.
Raisman and Wieber were both among the 169 people who delivered victim impact statements during this sentencing hearing. Maroney's was read or her behalf by Michigan Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis.
In February, Nassar was issued his third prison sentence on three more sexual assault charges. This sentence is for between 40 and 125 more years in state prison, and he was issued it following a three-day sentencing hearing during which 65 more people delivered victim impact statements in front of him in an Eaton County, Michigan courtroom.
Last month, Nassar was also charged with six counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child in Texas, but there has not been any additional time added to any of his three prison sentences as a result of this.
But all the USOC filing to remove themselves as defendants in the lawsuits seems to really doing is "stirring the pot", effectively creating unnecessary complications and problems.
While the USOC is umbrella organization for USA Gymnastics among other National Governing Body members for other individual sports and Nassar did not directly work for them, he is still clearly tied to them given their tie to USA Gymnastics and they did fail to act on complaints about him from USA Gymnastics officials in 2015.
Should the USOC be successful in being removed from these six lawsuits, it will send a bad message. There is already far more than enough unwarranted criticism being directed at the people who have accused Nassar of sexual assault.
The potential removal of the USOC from the lawsuits of these six survivors against them will only elevate this criticism. Even if this removal doesn't happen, the mere thought of it being a possibility will cause more people to jump to conclusions that the survivors are making the whole thing up, which is clearly not the case.
This would naturally worsen if the USOC are successful in their removal attempts even though several other organizations are also named in these lawsuits. If they are successful, it would also help them to "save face".
Plus, there have been far more than six lawsuits filed against the USOC as a result of the Nassar scandal. Why do the three named people whose lawsuits they are attempting to remove themselves from happen to be three recent Olympic gymnasts?
It almost seems like the USOC are filing to be removed from these lawsuits just to make the most well-known survivors look bad, and it seems like this is the case despite the fact that they continue to promote "change" to ensure that nothing like what happened with Nassar happens again.
After all, incoming USOC CEO Sarah Sarah Hirshland just totally snubbed Raisman following Tuesday's Senate hearing pertaining to Nassar after Raisman approached her in attempt to introduce herself.
Even with the USOC filing to remove themselves as defendants from her lawsuit, Raisman, who has been one of the most outspoken critics if not the most outspoken critic of the people and the institutions that protected, defended and enabled Nassar, including USA Gymnastics and Michigan State as well as the USOC themselves, still tried to be respectful to the organization's incoming CEO. However, she got absolutely no respect in return.
Only after Raisman publicly criticized her for it did Hirshland apologize for what happened, claiming that what happened (or really what didn't happen) only took place as a result of a misunderstanding. Whether or not that apology is sincere or her reasoning for what happened is truthful, only Hirshland knows for sure.
However, with this happening right after the USOC filed to remove themselves as defendants from Raisman's lawsuit and the lawsuits of five others, including two other Olympic gymnasts, it really seems like the USOC are trying to create issues that do not need to be created at this point.
Hopefully I am wrong. Past history, however, including that for which Raisman has lashed out at the USOC, may indicate otherwise.