Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexually abusing female gymnasts, was stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another incarcerated person at a federal prison in Florida.
Two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press the attack happened Sunday at United States Penitentiary Coleman in Florida. They said he was in stable condition Monday.
One of the people said Nassar had been stabbed in the back and in the chest.
The people were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack or the ongoing investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Nassar, 59, was sentenced in 2017 to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges. In 2018, he was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts, including Olympic medalists. And in February 2018, he received an additional 40 to 125 years in Michigan State prison after pleading guilty to an additional three counts of sexual assault in Eaton County, Michigan.
Originally sent to a prison in Tucson, Arizona, he was attacked shortly after being released into the general population. Authorities transferred Nassar to his current maximum security federal prison about 90 minutes from Tampa.
Nassar admitted to sexually assaulting athletes when he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians. Separately, Nassar pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
During victim impact statements in 2018, several athletes testified that over the course of Nassar’s more than two decades of sexual abuse, they had told adults what was happening, including coaches and athletic trainers, but that it went unreported.
More than 100 women, including Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, collectively sought more than $1 billion from the federal government for the FBI’s failure to stop Nassar when agents became aware of allegations against him in 2015. He was arrested by Michigan State University police in 2016, more than a year later.
Michigan State, which was accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
