Former Michigan State University women’s gymnastics coach, Kathie Klages, who was charged in connection with the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal, will turn herself in to Lansing police on Thursday and be arraigned afterward, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday.
Special Independent Counsel Bill Forsyth announced last week that Kathie Klages was charged with two counts of lying to a peace officer, alleging she falsely denied to Michigan State Police detectives that she had been told prior to 2016 of Nassar’s sexual misconduct.
Some women claimed to have reported Nassar’s sexual abuse to Klages decades ago, including one woman named Larissa Boyce, who said she told Klages about Nassar in 1997 when she was a 16-year-old gymnast. Boyce said Klages didn’t believe her.
Klages was the women’s gymnastics coach when Nassar, a prominent team doctor for MSU and USA Gymnastics, sexually abused hundreds of girls and women under the guise of providing medical treatment.
Klages was one of 14 MSU representatives who received reports about Nassar abuse over the two decades before his arrest and is the fourth person to be charged in connection with the Nassar scandal. She is also the first from MSU’s athletic department. The charges include a four-year felony and a two-year misdemeanor.
By: Maytinee Kramer
