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Report: Strampel did not want to fire Nassar, did not believe patients

March 19, 2018
Larry Nassar's defense attorney Matt Newburg and Nassar listen to a victim impact statement on the second day of sentencing for Larry Nassar on Feb. 2, 2018, in the Eaton County courtroom. Nassar faces three counts of criminal sexual conduct in Eaton. (Annie Barker | State News)
Larry Nassar's defense attorney Matt Newburg and Nassar listen to a victim impact statement on the second day of sentencing for Larry Nassar on Feb. 2, 2018, in the Eaton County courtroom. Nassar faces three counts of criminal sexual conduct in Eaton. (Annie Barker | State News) —

Ex-MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar's former boss and former dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine William Strampel did not believe the sexual abuse claims made against Nassar, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Strampel was the dean of the osteopathic medical school since 2002, until he stepped down in December 2017 because of medical reasons. He did not want to fire Nassar, despite the sexual abuse allegations against him.

"As soon as I found out I had to fire his ass. I didn’t want to, but what am I supposed to do?” Strampel said, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Strampel said to students and administrators in fall 2016 that he did not believe those who claimed they were sexually abused by the Nassar, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“This just goes to show that none of you learned the most basic lesson in medicine, medicine 101, that you should have learned in your first week: don’t trust your patients,” Strampel said. “Patients lie to get doctors in trouble. And we’re seeing that right now in the news with this Nassar stuff. I don’t think any of these women were actually assaulted by Larry, but Larry didn’t learn that lesson and didn’t have a chaperone in the room, so now they see an opening and they can take advantage of him.”  

The Michigan Attorney General's office confiscated his work phone, computers and calendars with the investigation into how MSU handled the reports against Nassar. 

More than 100 women who were abused by Nassar have also named Strampel in their civil lawsuits for negligence in handling the reports of abuse. 

In 2005, Strampel had students perform prostate and rectal exams on himself when the model failed to show up, according to a letter written by several students. He had one student leave the room with him alone to perform the exam, and the student was afraid of failing if he declined, according to the Wall Street Journal.

MSU Communications and Brand Strategy did not respond to comment at the time of publication.

MSU Interim President John Engler said in February he was looking into firing Strampel from the faculty. The dean did not enforce that Nassar had a chaperone in the room during exams.

“Allegations have arisen that question whether his personal conduct over a long period of time met MSU’s standards," Engler said in a previous State News article.

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