After former Team USA Gymnastics and MSU doctor Larry Nassar received multiple life sentences in prison while being convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of women and girls, his former MSU boss, William Strampel, was also charged with sexual misconduct. Both on the felony and misdemeanor levels, his charges followed accusations from four victims who were students at MSU.
Strampel still remains as dean MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, for he’s tenured and will likely be difficult to oust. According to his alleged victims, he not only “enabled” Nassar’s pattern of predatory behavior but also committed his own horrific offenses. The New York Post reports that he paid these women $100 per hour to be “clinical models,” and the Michigan Attorney General’s office has filed a motion including the following accusations:
“It bears the same eerie mark as the conduct of Larry Nassar, employing the cover of legitimate medical procedures, conducted for his own sexual gratification,” wrote Chief Legal Counsel Eric Restuccia.
Prosecutors say one of the women is willing to testify that Strampel privately told her it had “turned him on” and that he was “beginning to get har” after roughly her 10th model examination in front of a small group of students that included breast, anal and a pelvic examination that included vaginal penetration.
This new motion revolves around accusations from two women, which brings the total number of Strampel accusers to four. Most of the exams in question took place in front of medical students, although Strampel’s subsequent alleged declarations of feeling sexually gratified leads one to believe that his motives were anything but professional. One accuser says that he also took her to private rooms for exams, and multiple women say that not only did he make comments about their pubic hair, but he also promised to allow them to retake exams and admit them to the medical school if they granted him sexual favors.
In February, MSU President John Engler began the firing process for Strampel, although all of the required steps could take until early 2019 to complete, and tenured university employees can generally only be removed in “extreme circumstances,” yet a criminal conviction would probably qualify as such. The Lansing State Journal reports that MSU’s hands are currently tied, which only adds to the university’s major PR problem in the wake of the Nassar scandal.
(Via Michigan Live, Lansing State Journal, New York Post, Detroit News & CBS News)