First victim to file complaint against Larry Nassar speaks out

The first victim to file a police complaint against former sports doctor Larry Nassar penned a gut-wrenching op-ed in The New York Times Friday following the pervy predator’s sentencing Wednesday.

Rachael Denhollander, who filed a complaint against Nassar on Aug. 29, 2016, outlined what she gained—and what was lost—by coming forward about the sexual abuse she suffered as a teen and advocating on behalf of other victims.

“I lost my church. I lost my closest friends as a result of advocating for survivors who had been victimized by similar institutional failures in my own community,” Denhollander wrote in The New York Times Friday.

“I lost every shred of privacy.”

While her legal training prepared her for the process of filing a complaint, she said “absolutely nothing could have prepared me for the pain of being the first to go public with my accusations.’

Denhollander’s allegations that Nassar sexually assaulted her when she received treatment for lower back pain as a 15-year-old gymnast in 2000 were first reported by The Indianapolis Star on Sept. 12, 2016.

She said she avoided grocery stores on some days to ensure the privacy of her children.

“I was asked questions about things no one should know when I least wanted to talk,” she said in the op-ed.

It was also hard for her to make new friends.

“When a new friend googled my name or added me as a friend on Facebook, the most intimate details of my life became available long before we had even exchanged phone numbers,” she said.

She said skeptics accused her of being an “ambulance chaser” or said she was just “looking for a payday” by trying to move the case against Nassar forward.

Those suggestions were “crushing,” Denhollander said.

They also reminded her how important her voice—and those of other survivors—would be in fighting a system that tolerated years of abuse.

“All of it served as a reminder: These were the very cultural dynamics that had allowed Larry Nassar to remain in power,” she wrote.

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina on Wednesday sentenced Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison after 156 survivors. including Olympic gymnasts, gave statements over seven days.

“Over the course of the trial, we became an army determined to expose the greatest sexual assault scandal in sports history. And we succeeded,” Denhollander wrote.

“The pain we shared knit us together instantly,” she said.

Denhollander made recommendations for stemming future sexual abuse.

“There is much that needs to be done legislatively, including extending or removing the statute of limitations on criminal and civil charges related to sexual assault, and strengthening mandatory reporting laws and ensuring truth in sentencing, so that dangerous offenders are not released early to damage more children.”

She condemned authorities that either protected abusers or turned a blind eye to their behavior.

“The result of putting reputation and popularity ahead of girls and young women? The vile stories you heard in that courtroom this week, all of which could have been prevented,” Denhollander said.

“Now that the world has been transfixed by our case, we must make sure not even one more young woman is preyed upon like I was.”