Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and more than 90 other American gymnasts sued the FBI on Wednesday for $1 billion, accused of “negligence” in the sex abuse scandal committed by former sports doctor Larry Nassar.
“The FBI knew Larry Nassar was a danger to children when my assault was first reported in September 2015,” gymnast Maggie Nichols said in a statement from the law firm. lawyers Manly, Stewart & Finaldi.
She accused federal police officers of “working” with the United States Gymnastics Federation and the United States Olympic Committee “for 421 days to hide this information from the public, allowing Nassar to continue to assault girls and boys. young women”.
Former United States women’s team doctor Larry Nassar, 58, is serving a life sentence after he was heavily convicted in 2017 and 2018 for the sexual assaults of more than 250 mostly underage gymnasts at the in the gymnastics federation, at Michigan State University and in a gymnastics club.
The first charges against him were forwarded in July 2015 to the local FBI office in Indianapolis.
The investigation was quickly dropped and it took another report, in May 2016, for the federal police to launch new investigations.
“Numerous and fundamental errors”
The agents “made numerous and fundamental errors and violated several FBI rules”, had then reprimanded the general inspection of the Department of Justice in a damning report.
However, the department announced in late May that it would not prosecute offending officers.
“The other victims and I have been betrayed by all the institutions that were supposed to protect us,” said former Olympic champion McKayla Maroney, also quoted in the statement, mentioning the federation, the Olympic committee, the FBI and the Department of Justice.
“It is clear that our only path to justice and healing is through legal process,” she added.
In September 2021, Maroney, Biles and Nichols had blasted before a Senate committee the inaction of sports and police authorities in the face of charges against Larry Nassar.
The FBI did not comment, recalling the testimony of its director, Christopher Wray, before the Senate committee last year.
He then apologized to the doctor’s victims, admitting that “the fundamental mistakes made in 2015 and 2016 should never have been”.
In December 2021, the American sports authorities had agreed to pay $ 380 million in compensation to the victims of Larry Nassar.