Ex-Michigan State dean charged in Nassar scandal

Associated Press

EAST LANSING, MICH.

The sexual-abuse scandal at Michigan State University widened Tuesday when authorities charged a former dean with failing to protect patients from sports doctor Larry Nassar, along with sexually harassing female students and pressuring them for nude selfies.

William Strampel, 70, is the first person charged since an investigation was launched in January into how Michigan State handled complaints against Nassar, who for years sexually violated girls and young women, especially gymnasts, with his fingers during examinations.

Strampel, who as dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine oversaw the clinic where Nassar worked, neglected his duty to enforce examining-room restrictions imposed on Nassar after a patient accused the doctor in 2014 of sexual contact, authorities alleged.

Nassar was not supposed to treat patients near any “sensitive areas” on the body without a chaperone present. Because Strampel did not follow up to make sure Nassar was complying, he was able to commit a host of additional sexual assaults until he was fired two years later, prosecutors said.

The criminal complaint also accused Strampel of soliciting nude photos from at least one female medical student and using his office to “harass, discriminate, demean, sexually proposition, and sexually assault female students in violation of his statutory duty as a public officer.”

His work computer was found to contain about 50 photos of female genitalia, nude and semi-nude women, sex toys and pornography, prosecutors said.