Former Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean William Strampel is in court Tuesday morning on allegations that he sexually abused students and possessed dozens of pornographic images on a university computer. Watch live in the player above, courtesy of WXYZ-TV.
Strampel is the former boss of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor who was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for sexually assaulting women and girls during medical appointments for decades. The Michigan Attorney General’s office stumbled onto Strampel’s alleged misconduct when they searched his computer in connection with their investigation of how the university handled complaints against Nassar.
The criminal complaint against Strampel said that among the files investigators found on his computer was a video of Nassar “performing ‘treatment’ on a young female patient.”
Despite this, Strampel had said in October 2016 that he did not believe Nassar’s accusers. At Nassar’s sentencing hearings in early 2018, more than 100 women and girls provided victim impact statements, many going into significant detail of what they claim Nassar did to them. A number of them also called out MSU officials, accusing them of letting Nassar’s abuse go on as long as it did.
In a 2016 Wall Street Journal report, Strampel was quoted as saying:
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.
Strampel is charged with fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, misconduct in office, and two counts of willful neglect of duty.
[Image via WILX screengrab]
