By ANNA LIZ NICHOLS Associated Press / Report for America
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a former Michigan State University gymnastics coach who was accused of lying to investigators about her knowledge of sexual abuse complaints against Larry Nassar in the 1990s.
In a 2-1 decision, the court didn’t determine that Kathie Klages had told the truth to police, but rather that her interviews in 2018 were not crucial in a state investigation of how the university had responded to allegations about Nassar.
Kathie Klages (Lansing Police Dept.)
The interviews with Klages came after Nassar was sent to prison. State prosecutors never presented evidence that anyone “got away” with a crime due to her alleged cover-up, said judges Elizabeth Gleicher and Cynthia Diane Stephens.
“It was inconsequential, rather than material,” they said, even viewing it in a light most favorable to prosecutors in the state attorney general’s office.
Klages was sentenced to 90 days in jail in 2020 on felony and misdemeanor counts of lying to police. Two women testified that in 1997, while attending a youth gymnastics camp, they told her that Nassar had sexually abused them, long before he was publicly accused by others in 2016.
Klages maintained her innocence throughout the case, insisting she could not remember a conversation with either girl two decades later.
FILE – In this Feb. 5, 2018, file photo, Larry Nassar listens during his sentencing at Eaton County Circuit Court in Charlotte, Mich. (Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP, File)
Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison after hundreds of women and girls accused him of decades of molestation under the guise of medical treatment.
Larissa Boyce testified that as a 16-year-old she gathered the courage to tell Klages what had happened to her, only to have Klages hold up a piece of paper and say there would be serious consequences if she filed a report.
The attorney general’s office said it was reviewing the appeals court opinion and had no immediate comment.
“We are thrilled with the result,” Klages’ attorney, Mary Chartier, said. “It has been a long battle, but Mrs. Klages has finally been vindicated.”
Klages was the second person to be convicted of charges related to Nassar. His former boss, Dr. William Strampel, was sentenced to jail for neglect of duty after not enforcing safety protocols on Nassar after a patient said Nassar assaulted her in 2014.
Klages was MSU’s women’s gymnastics coach for 27 years. She suddenly retired in 2017 after athletic department officials learned that she had defended Nassar to her gymnasts when allegations against him made headlines in 2016.
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Anna Liz Nichols is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
