USA Gymnastics is cleaning house.
USA Gymnastics is cleaning house.
Less than a year after USA Gymnastics president and chief executive officer Steve Penny stepped down in the wake of sex abuse allegations leveled against former team doctor Larry Nassar, three members of the organization’s board of directors offered their resignations Sunday, right in the midst of Nassar’s Michigan sentencing hearing.
Among the three USA Gymnastics executives who resigned Sunday is Paul Parilla, the chairman of the board of directors. Parilla is the same person who in March of 2017 said that the organization was going to “implement solutions to move (USA Gymnastics) forward in promoting a safe environment for its athletes at all levels,” following Penny’s resignation.
Nassar, 54, pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges last year and he was sentenced to 60 years in prison in that case. He pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual contact in November in Michigan state court, part of a plea deal, and he will be sentenced after the dozens of his victims finish delivering impact statements in court. Aly Raisman, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist, gave her impact statement last week, and Nassar’s victims are expected to continue to testify in the courtroom through Thursday. But one of the attorneys representing 105 of Nassar’s victims told the Daily News that the news of the resignations is too little, too late.
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“It’s long overdue. Mr. Parilla and the others are in many ways the key elements in the culture of enabling,” attorney John Manly said. “The people on this (USA Gymnastics) board are the people who supported Nassar for years. I think this is a desperate act of an organization that has come to the realization it is in its death throes. If you want to resolve the problem, resign en masse and have an outside investigator come in.”
Former FBI director Louis Freeh conducted an independent probe into Penn State and its handling of former football coach Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.
USA Gymnastics said in a statement that the other two board members who resigned were vice chairman Jay Binder and treasurer Bitsy Kelley.
“We support their decisions to resign at this time,” the USA Gymnastics current president and CEO, Kerry Perry, said in a statement, where she also thanked Parilla, Binder and Kelley for their service. The statement did not directly mention Nassar.
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“That is the telltale sign USA Gymnastics is trying to deflect this — thanking Paul Parilla for his service? They might as well slap the victims in their faces,” Manly said. “It strikes me as a clear sign that they still don’t get it.”
Nassar’s abuse stretches back years while he was working at both Michigan State University and in his capacity as USA Gymnastics team doctor. Manly represents another 2012 Olympic gold medalist, McKayla Maroney, who announced on social media last year that Nassar had inflicted years-long sexual abuse on her, including before she completed her medal-winning performances at the London 2012 Games. Maroney has filed a civil suit against USA Gymnastics, MSU, the U. S. Olympic Committee, Nassar, and other defendants, and Maroney claims USAG “forced” her to sign a confidentiality agreement in December 2016 so she would not go public with her allegations against Nassar.
Meanwhile, gymnast Emma Ann Miller testified in Michigan court Monday that she is still being billed for appointments with Nassar when he sexually abused her. Miller, 15, said her last appointment with Nassar was in August 2016.
“The word Nassar will permanently be associated with child sexual abuse,” Miller said.
