The University of Michigan is probing allegations made against a now-dead team doctor accused of sexually abusing several former student-athletes during medical exams, a report said.
Dr. Robert E. Anderson, who died in 2008, has been accused of sexual assault during exams starting in the 1970s while he was the director of University Health Service as well as a team physician, the Detroit News reported.
His tenure included stints as the top physician for football teams led by famed U-M coaches Bo Schembechler and Lloyd Carr.
The Ann Arbor college said it was first notified of the allegations against Anderson in July 2018 when a former student wrote a letter describing alleged abuse in the early 1970s.
School officials said interviews with dozens of other students uncovered more reports of “sexual misconduct and unnecessary medical exams,” with at least one as late as the 1990s.
“The allegations that were reported are disturbing and very serious,” university president Mark Schlissel said in a statement. “We promptly began a police investigation and cooperated fully with the prosecutor’s office.”
The college said it’s making the information public following a determination Tuesday that no criminal charges would be authorized.
“Because Dr. Anderson is deceased, no criminal prosecution of him would be possible regardless of whether the facts set for the report supported such an action,” Washtenaw County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Steven Hiller told the Detroit News.
The allegations come after the high-profile case of Michigan State University sports physician Larry Nassar, who was sentenced in January 2018 for sexually abusing hundreds of young women and girls.