The former dean of Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, who oversaw disgraced Olympic gymnastics coach Larry Nassar, was arrested Monday and will face charges of “inappropriately touching a student and storing nude photos of female students on his work computer,” CBS News reports.
William Strampel is perhaps best known as Nassar’s boss, and the man charged with overseeing Nassar’s work in the school’s sports medicine clinic while Nassar molested dozens of female gymnasts. Strampel was already under scrutiny for allegedly never following up on complaints about Nassar’s behavior; he began a leave of absence from his position in December, as the school launched an internal investigation.
Now Strampel is facing charges, though Ingham County Prosecutors declined to give further details on Strampel’s alleged crimes other than to say they are sexual in nature and involve female students. Strampel is the first person, aside from Nassar, to face charges in what CBS and the Associated Press are referring to as the single largest sexual assault case in college sports history.
Strampel’s name has come up in relation to Nassar before. CBS reports that Strampel told police he knew of complaints against Nassar as far back as 2014, and that he’d once instructed Nassar to have a third person in the room when he performed any treatments of a sensitive nature.
Nassar was eventually fired for failing to follow Strampel’s directive, but not until 2016. And Strampel reportedly told police in 2017 that he felt Nassar didn’t require intense supervision because Nassar had been “exonerated” in the 2014 case. The State of Michigan says that “at least 12 reported assaults” occurred between 2014 and when Nassar was finally fired in 2016.
Nassar was eventually convicted of dozens of instances of sexual assault. He is believed to have touched at least 250 women inappropriately during his time as a sports therapist at Michigan State, and during his tenure as team doctor to the United States Olympic gymnastics team.
More disciplinary measures are expected. Newly-minted MSU president John Engler told media that he is conducting an intensive investigation into the entire athletics and sports medicine department at MSU. An NCAA probe is also expected.