Larry Nassar removed from Michigan sex offender registry after Supreme Court ruling

Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of young women, has been removed from the Michigan Sex Offender Registry. 1 2 The removal followed a Michigan Supreme Court ruling that 2021 amendments to the Sex Offender Registration Act cannot be used to retroactively require registration for older offences. Fox News dates the ruling to September 9. 2 1 As a result, offenders whose crimes were committed before July 1, 2011 were taken off the registry. Breitbart puts the number of names scrubbed at as many as 20,000, and Fox News says more than 20,000 people were purged from the Michigan State Police database. 2 1

Nassar's conviction came years after that date, but prosecutors explained that many of his crimes predated July 2011, so his name was removed. The Eaton County Prosecutor's Office confirmed the removal on Thursday. 2 1 The Eaton County Prosecutor's Office, led by Prosecutor Doug Lloyd, criticised the outcome. It said the Supreme Court could have applied a different interpretation that let certain offenders stay on the list, and that debate over the registry's effectiveness belongs in the legislature, not the courts. 1 2 Both outlets say Nassar poses no threat to the public because he is serving lengthy prison sentences and is unlikely to be released before his death. Fox News says these are for state sexual assault and federal child pornography convictions. Breitbart adds that the mass removal means residents can no longer use the registry to check whether people near them were listed as offenders. 1 2

Nassar was team doctor for USA Gymnastics until 2014 and for Michigan State until 2016. Fox News recalls that the case became a national scandal after Rachael Denhollander accused him publicly in September 2016, and that Judge Rosemarie Aquilina called him "possibly the most prolific serial child sex abuser in history" at his January 2018 sentencing. 1