Leaders in a Michigan township publicly apologized to a sex-abuse victim Thursday for botching her 2004 complaint that disgraced former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar molested her — but the cop who actually mishandled the investigation was absent.
Brianne Randall, then 17, told Meridian Township police that Nassar spent 10 to 15 minutes “rubbing around and squeezing her bare breasts” and also “massaged her crotch” with bare hands while he was supposed to be treating her for the spinal disorder scoliosis.
Nassar told cops he was performing a legitimate procedure, even using a PowerPoint presentation to back up his deceit. Officer Andrew McCready took him at his word.
“You’ve all been through a lot and we’re sorry for that,” Town Manager Frank Walsh told Randall, who Skyped in to a press conference the town streamed online. “We thought that this needed to be done in public.”
Randall responded that: “Although this does not erase the pain I have suffered … this process has been therapeutic for me and allowed me to let go of the anger I’ve had.”
McCready, who has since been promoted to sergeant, did not attend Thursday.
“He is remorseful — he has apologized. It was a private conversation that I believe went well,” said police chief David Hall, who was interim chief at the time of the assault and report.
“I hope that he’s learned from this,” Randall added.
The department is conducting a review of all criminal sexual-contact complaints the department has handled over the last 18 years, and Hall will have to sign off on every investigation from now on, he said.
Randall, who now lives in Seattle, will come to Meridian Township to advise women and children on how to report sex assault to authorities, Walsh said.
“We missed it. We’re not going to hide it. We were deceived,” Walsh admitted, according to the Detroit News.
A total of 265 women and girls have accused Nassar of assaulting them while he was a physician for USA Gymnastics working at Michigan State University.
Nassar, 54, has admitted molesting seven athletes he treated and was sentenced in Ingham County on Wednesday last week to 40 to 175 years in prison for sex assault.
“I just signed your death warrant,” Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina seethed as she handed down the sentence.
He also copped to molesting three girls in nearby Eaton County, and dozens of accusers confronted him this week during a sentencing hearing in that case.
Separately, Nassar has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography.