USA Gymnastics proposed a payment system Friday to compensate survivors of sexual assault by former national team doctor Larry Nassar.
Per ESPN.com, the system is part of a $215 million total settlement offer with a tiered structure determining payouts ranging from $82,550 to $1.25 million.
The four-tiered settlement proposal includes $82,550 payments to individuals with “derivative claims”; $174,401 for gymnasts who were abused at non-USA Gymnastics locations; $508,670 payments to non-elite gymnasts sexually abused at USA Gymnastics-sanctioned events; and $1,250,757 payments to those sexually abused by Nassar at the Olympics, world championships, national team training camps or other national team events.
The report noted “attorneys representing hundreds of Nassar survivors have indicated that the proposal is insufficient.”
Attorney John Manly, who represents 200 Nassar survivors, spoke with Scott M. Reid of the Orange County Register about the proposal:
“Let’s be clear for parents considering putting your child in a gym sanctioned by USA Gymnastics what USA Gymnastics is saying if we place a known pedophile in that gym and that individual rapes your child then your child is worth $82,000. My client Rachael Denhollander asked what is a little girl worth. Apparently if you’re raped by the national team doctor you’re worth $82,000 to USA Gymnastics.
“This is the most disgusting, reprehensible, vile view of children I can imagine. And for [USA Gymnastics] to put this out there and act like it is a constructive step shows how out of touch they are. Steve Penny was so bad USA Gymnastics banned him for life, the Karolyis, every one of them, and they pay nothing. They have no consequences. What message does that send to the next Steve Penny? The message is you get off scot free. You’re better off putting your kids in roller derby.”
If the settlement were agreed upon, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny and former national team directors Bela and Martha Karolyi would be released from further claims.
The proposal would be paid out to 517 survivors of abuse by Nassar or other coaches and trainers with United States Gymnastics.
In January, USA Gymnastics filed a plan to emerge from bankruptcy that included the $215 million settlement proposal. The organization filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2018 to “expedite an equitable resolution of the claims made by the survivors of sexual abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar.”
In addition to his work with USA Gymnastics, Nassar worked as a sports doctor at Michigan State University from 1997 to 2016.
In 2018, Michigan State reached a $500 million settlement in lawsuits brought by 332 survivors of Nassar’s abuse. The agreement included $425 million in payouts to claimants and $75 million put into a trust to protect future claimants alleging sexual abuse by Nassar.
Nassar was the medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics from 1996 to 2014. He is serving at least 100 years in prison after being convicted of child pornography and criminal sexual conduct charges in three separate cases.