November 1, 2021 | Written By - Lauren Izanec '22
2018. This was the year that over 100 women came forward to testify against Larry Nassar, the US national gymnastics team and Michigan State University doctor who had been molesting and abusing gymnasts for at least 20 years. Nassar ended up being convicted of sexual assault of minors and was sentenced to 40 to175 years in prison. But the battle wasn’t won for Nassar’s victims. Not emotionally, and not even legally, yet. Just last month, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, and Maggie Nichols went before the Supreme Court to testify against the two FBI agents in charge of the case for their gross mishandling and falsification of the victims’ statements. Maggie Nichols was the first to report her abuse at Nassar’s hands to the FBI and between the time of her report in 2015 and the FBI’s eventual actions against Nassar 15 months later, 70 more girls had experienced abuse, either continued or new. Yet despite the various testimonies and evidence of falsified statements, the Justice Department still made the decision not to prosecute W. Jay Abbott and Michael Langeman, the FBI agents in question.
What made it possible for these events to transpire? Not only were there massive delays and misconduct in the Indianapolis FBI office, which was partially responsible for handling the case at the time, but there were also previous legal events that resulted in the case not even technically being under federal jurisdiction. Following the Supreme Court case, United States v. Morrison in 2000, it became impossible for sex crimes to be fully investigated and prosecuted on a federal level, with this responsibility and authority instead being placed on the state level. What this means, essentially, is that nothing was done for the 15 months between Nichols’ report and Nassar’s arrest because she reported her abuse to the FBI, not the state of Michigan. Beyond their delays and lack of action, the FBI technically didn’t have legal jurisdiction to investigate the case. The result of this 2000 ruling can be seen across many other high-profile cases and the rise of the MeToo movement: it is incredibly difficult, emotionally and logistically, to report sexual assault and abuse.
Overall, rates for convictions and reports of rape and sexual assault are devastatingly low, with less than 1% of sexual assault perpetrators incarcerated for their crimes. However, the gross mishandling of Nassar’s case by the FBI brings to light a striking issue in the legislative coverage of sexual assault and abuse crimes. There is a clear disconnect between federal and state laws and it’s often impossible to get justice or reparations for assault because it isn’t reported to the correct people. Although the FBI has acknowledged the procedural problems with the way the Indianapolis Field Office handled Maggie Nichols’ report, there is yet to be real systemic change in the way crimes of sexual assault are handled, particularly for minors.
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