Kathie Klages Handed 90-Day Jail Time for Involvement in Nassar-Related Case

LANSING, KOMPAS.com - A former Michigan State University gymnastics coach Kathie Klages has been sentenced to jail for her role in the Larry Nassar abuse case.

Kathie must undergo 90 days in jail after she lied to police during an investigation into former Olympic and university doctor Larry Nassar.

The 65-year-old ex-gymnastics coach was found guilty in February of a felony and misdemeanor for denying she knew of Larry Nassar’s abuse prior to 2016.

At that time, survivors started to come forward publicly. Kathie Klages was also sentenced to 18 months of probation.

Klages testified at trial, and in a tearful statement Tuesday, that she did not remember being told about the abuse.

She said she had been seeing a therapist to try to remember the conversations, and she apologized to victims if they occurred.

“Even when I don’t express it to others, I struggle with what I’ve been accused of and what my role in this tragedy may have been,” she said in court.

Two women testified in November 2018 that they told Klages in 1997 that Nassar had sexually abused them and spoke Tuesday in court ahead of the sentencing.

One of the women, Larissa Boyce, testified that Klages held up a piece of paper in front of the then-teenager and warned that if she filed a report there could be serious consequences.

“I am standing here representing my 16-year-old self who was silenced and humiliated 23 years ago and, unfortunately, all of the hundreds of girls that were abused after me,” Boyce said.

Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to 40 to 175 years in prison for decades of molestation of young women and girls under the guise of medical treatment

The other woman who testified but has not publicly identified herself read statements from other alleged victims. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes unless they grant permission.

She said the way Klages refused to take responsibility and how their memories and testimony were refuted by the defense was “backwards and disappointing”.

“My hope was that she would be sorry and deeply apologize, but that is not the case,” she said.

“The first and only adult I had ever told just canceled all of my intuitions that sexual abuse is real and painful. She silenced me not only when I was 14 but for 20 years, as I did not have the confidence to speak up about it again.”