https://www.lansingstatejournal.com...ty-attorney-general-investigation/2380754002/
In a scathing report on Michigan State University’s handling of sexual assault complaints against Larry Nassar, the Attorney General’s Office said the university’s “culture of indifference and institutional protection” contributed to hundreds of women and girls being sexually abused.
The document, released this morning, says university employees failed to report concerns about Nassar, provides new details of the deeply flawed 2014 Title IX investigation, and shows how top MSU officials tried to stonewall the independent investigation, an extension an “anti-transparency” culture.
“An institution truly interested in the truth would not have acted as MSU has,” wrote William Forsyth, who led the investigation. “MSU’s initial decision to hire a private law firm to conduct its internal investigation, its subsequent refusal to release the results of that investigation and waive attorney-client privilege, along with its insistence on having its attorneys attend witness interviews have made it virtually impossible to know exactly what happened at MSU during the Nassar years.
“For as long as MSU frustrates the search for the truth, we will never be fully confident that we have it.”
He wrote that the university issued false public statements, drowned investigators in irrelevant documents, fought the release of relevant documents and wrongly asserted attorney-client privilege.
“These actions warrant extended discussion because they highlight a common thread we encountered throughout the investigation into how the University handled allegations against Nassar,” the reports states. “Both then and now, MSU has fostered a culture of indifference toward sexual assault, motivated by its desire to protect its reputation.”
An extension of this, according to Forsyth’s report, was the role former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and his law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, performed for the university. While the university publicly said Fitzgerald’s team would act on what it learned from a review, Forsyth wrote in the report that, “Mr. Fitzgerald, it turned out, was not hired to investigate for the purpose of presenting his findings to the public, as MSU originally implied, but to prepare and protect the institution in forthcoming litigation.”
The university drowned the investigation in irrelevant documents, like the university’s bed bug policy and various restaurant coupons, while also withholding or redacting thousands of documents, according to the report.
“MSU’s decision to invoke this privilege and protect certain documents, while legally permissible, nonetheless reflects a decision to place financial and legal considerations over and above the survivors’ and the public’s interest in learning how Larry Nassar was able to prey on so many young women at the state’s largest public university,” Forsyth wrote.
High-ranking university officials also exhibited a “culture of anti-transparency,” Forsyth wrote.
In a scathing report on Michigan State University’s handling of sexual assault complaints against Larry Nassar, the Attorney General’s Office said the university’s “culture of indifference and institutional protection” contributed to hundreds of women and girls being sexually abused.
The document, released this morning, says university employees failed to report concerns about Nassar, provides new details of the deeply flawed 2014 Title IX investigation, and shows how top MSU officials tried to stonewall the independent investigation, an extension an “anti-transparency” culture.
“An institution truly interested in the truth would not have acted as MSU has,” wrote William Forsyth, who led the investigation. “MSU’s initial decision to hire a private law firm to conduct its internal investigation, its subsequent refusal to release the results of that investigation and waive attorney-client privilege, along with its insistence on having its attorneys attend witness interviews have made it virtually impossible to know exactly what happened at MSU during the Nassar years.
“For as long as MSU frustrates the search for the truth, we will never be fully confident that we have it.”
He wrote that the university issued false public statements, drowned investigators in irrelevant documents, fought the release of relevant documents and wrongly asserted attorney-client privilege.
“These actions warrant extended discussion because they highlight a common thread we encountered throughout the investigation into how the University handled allegations against Nassar,” the reports states. “Both then and now, MSU has fostered a culture of indifference toward sexual assault, motivated by its desire to protect its reputation.”
An extension of this, according to Forsyth’s report, was the role former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and his law firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, performed for the university. While the university publicly said Fitzgerald’s team would act on what it learned from a review, Forsyth wrote in the report that, “Mr. Fitzgerald, it turned out, was not hired to investigate for the purpose of presenting his findings to the public, as MSU originally implied, but to prepare and protect the institution in forthcoming litigation.”
The university drowned the investigation in irrelevant documents, like the university’s bed bug policy and various restaurant coupons, while also withholding or redacting thousands of documents, according to the report.
“MSU’s decision to invoke this privilege and protect certain documents, while legally permissible, nonetheless reflects a decision to place financial and legal considerations over and above the survivors’ and the public’s interest in learning how Larry Nassar was able to prey on so many young women at the state’s largest public university,” Forsyth wrote.
High-ranking university officials also exhibited a “culture of anti-transparency,” Forsyth wrote.
