[Watch live streaming footage of the arraignment on the Law&Crime Network in the player above. For a raw feed of the arraignment, watch the player below this article]
William Strampel, the former dean of Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, is facing charges of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, neglect of duty and misconduct of a public official, for allegedly groping and harassing students, and possessing dozens of pornographic images on a university computer. He is scheduled for arraignment at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Watch live in the player above.
The Michigan Attorney General’s office was looking at Strampel’s computer as part of their investigation of how MSU handled complaints against former doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexually assaulting women and girls during treatments when he worked for MSU and USA Gymnastics.
Earlier this year, Nassar was sentenced at hearings in Ingham County and Eaton County, where more than 100 women and girls gave victim impact statements describing their encounters with Nassar. A number of those statements made references to officials at MSU who allegedly enabled Nassar to continue his abuse for decades.
According to a criminal complaint, Strampel’s computer contained a video of Nassar “performing ‘treatment’ on a young female patient.”
This comes after Strampel reportedly said in October 2016 that he didn’t believe Nassar’s accusers. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Strampel said:
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.
[Image via WILX screengrab]