She’s one of Larry Nassar’s youngest victims, and possibly his most recent.
But 15-year-old Emma Ann Miller tore into the former USA Gymnastics doctor during his sentencing hearing Monday.
“I have never wanted to hate someone in my life, but my hate towards you is uncontrollable,” Miller told Nassar as she stared him down in court.
“You will probably never talk to a woman again, except for one holding a gun, a Taser and a billy club. Which is a good thing.”
Miller said she was 10 years old when she started getting monthly treatments from Nassar for a back injury. She said her mother is still getting billed for those visits from Michigan State University Sports Medicine, where Nassar had also worked.
“I, too, was sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar — multiple times at multiple appointments,” she said.
She said some of those incidents took place in a supply room. Her last encounter was in August 2016 — one week before Nassar was let go by MSU.
“I’m possibly the last child he will ever assault,” she said.
Jason Cody, a Michigan State spokesman, later said Nassar’s former patients “with outstanding bills will not be billed.”
Nassar has pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ingham County, Michigan, and has admitted to sexually assaulting and abusing young girls under the guise of providing medical treatment.
As part of his plea deal, all of the victims who reported assaults to Michigan State Police were allowed to give victim impact statements at the sentencing.
Nassar also has pleaded guilty to three charges of criminal sexual conduct in Eaton County, Michigan, and already has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for federal child pornography charges.
Prosecutors say a total of about 144 victims’ impact statements will be read or delivered in court. The statements could last into Tuesday, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said.
‘At that moment, I became his next victim’
Many victims spoke of Nassar’s former reputation as a top-notch doctor — an asset he fully exploited, accusers say.
“My mom and I felt very lucky we were able to get an appointment at his office because of his exceptional reputation,” survivor Whitney Mergens said.
Suffering from back pain, Mergens saw Nassar shortly after the doctor returned from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
To try to cheer her up, Mergens said, Nassar gave her a postcard from Beijing, autographed by the Olympic gymnasts.
At first, Mergens was delighted. Then, “at that moment, I became his next victim.”
“When it was over, my 11-year-old innocent mind was oblivious to what had just happened,” Mergens said. “I quit gymnastics shortly after that.”
“He will sit in prison just as a number, just like I was just a number to him, in his sick, malicious and evil game,” she said.
You ‘destroyed’ the trust and freedom we should enjoy as young mothers
Jessica Chedler Rodriguez told the court she was one of Nassar’s victims in 1997 when she went to him for treatment for back pain while competing.
“Larry, now I know what you did to treat my back at that competition was nothing to help me manage my pain at all to get me through the national meet,” Rodriguez said in a video played for the court. “But instead, it was just a ploy to enjoy your disgusting habit for sexual gratification. I trusted you and USA Gymnastics to take care of my pain, to help me follow my childhood dream. But both of you violated that trust and now I can’t trust anyone anymore.”
“Larry, not only did you steal my innocence and rob all these other women of their innocent childhood, but you have destroyed the joy, the trust and the freedom we should all be enjoying as mothers of young children,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said she “can no longer leave my 5-year-old daughter to play at a friend’s house, leave her alone with her coaches or with a babysitter without experiencing constant anxiety and stress wondering if I can trust the adults she’s with.”
“I find myself in a position where I must rob my children of the freedom they deserve, to have relationships and mentors with other adults that are most likely wonderful individuals. But now I can’t trust anybody.”
Pregnant survivor didn’t want her unborn child ‘to be in the same room with a child molester’
Kamerin Moore addressed Nassar directly. She said she initially wasn’t going to come there to say anything to him.
“Not because I didn’t have anything to say. But because I didn’t want this child I’m carrying to be in the same room with a child molester,” Moore said. “Even unborn life shouldn’t be subjected to that.”
“That’s how deeply I hate you for what you did to me,” she said.
Moore said she was often hurt as a young gymnast, and Nassar started treating her for a slew of injuries.
“I had my first major injury when I was 10, and that marked the beginning of our very long and very close relationship,” she said.
Nassar let her come to his house late at night and allowed her to sneak in the back door at MSU, she said. Moore said Nassar called her his “guinea pig” because he would always try out his new techniques and treatments tools on her.
“We always joked about how big my file was. By the time I graduated, I had three or four files … to hold all the paper work, from all the times you had treated me, all the times you had worked to gain my trust, and eventually all the times you abused that trust in order to abuse me.”
A new legacy
Several Olympians have also confronted Nassar in court, including Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber.
One of the most searing takedowns came from Raisman, who stared down Nassar and lambasted his decades of abuse.
“Larry, you do realize now that we, this group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time, are now a force, and you are nothing,” the 23-year-old said.
Miller, the 15-year-old victim, said Monday that Nassar’s legacy is forever ruined.
“Nassar has done something few people can do in their lifetime. Like how Kleenex is actually a corporate brand that many use in everyday vocabulary to describe a tissue, he has forever identified his name with child sexual abuse,” the teen said.
“Long after the ‘Olympic gymnasts’ doctor’ fades into a trivia fact known only by us or a Jeopardy contestant, the word ‘Nassar’ will permanently be associated with child sexual abuse.”
Court adjourned Monday after 133 victim impact statements were read. The statements are scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.