Victim 190
date of testimony: January 23th 2018
location of testimony: Lansing, Michigan
age at first abuse: 15
Sorry. I’m getting over sickness.
I was 15 when I began treatment with you. You told me that you could help me recover from my injuries so I could be the top athlete I wanted and dreamed of becoming.
Over the course of five years of treatment with you I was left with two surgical scars. Those healed. The ones that I am left with today are far worse than I could imagine. Almost 20 years later I have to re-live what you have done over and over like a broken record that won’t stop playing.
I have always put what you did to me in a dark place in my heart, locked up to never be discovered by anyone. That was until I learned I was not alone and the disgusting, horrible truth. I was horrified to realize that what you have done over the decades was not just to me. Now I have a chance to state how what you did destroyed a part of me and my family.
My mother did not believe me and what I was telling her. This destroyed me. She told me in your defense that I might say some things and that your methods were unconventional, but this was going to heal and alleviate my pain. How dare you. You made it so I could not only trust my own mother or confide in her, but you isolated me by fear because no one would believe me about what you were doing.
You were the doctor. Larry, as you like to be called. You were in our family’s garage giving my mother a hug and reassuring her that you were helping me. It makes me sick. You brought her articles you had written for your medical journals about myself, my injuries, and how much you were helping me recover. Was this a little trophy? Did you get a kick out of showing me what power you had and no one could stop you? How truly sick are you?
I am now 34 years old and I feel like I’m 15 again, and it really sucks. It’s like being at that room at MSU Sports Medical Clinic all over again week after week. To this day I can remember — I can remember looking out the window while you were treating me and thinking WTF, why am I still in this room? Then you would whisper, are you feeling okay? I remember where the door was, the pictures, the table, where the cabinets were, the smells, the sound of you washing your hands and using your ointment to help treatment, the clicking noises you made. You treated me for years. The things you did, the frequency, I remember it all. I was a child, and what you have taken is beyond words.
After treatment with you I didn’t know why I was doing the things I was, crying out for someone to believe me. I was failing at school, which I never had before, paranoid about everyone. I couldn’t keep friends. I couldn’t trust anyone. I was sleep deprived, anxious, the list goes on and on. I had struggled to finish anything in my life; my MSU degree, Douglas J for starters. I was a straight A, honor roll, National Honor Society, team captain before I started to see you. I locked everything away and told no one for years and years.
I finally had the courage to come forward and let people know that you have been doing this for decades and what a monster and not healer you truly are.
Life will move forward for me and stand still for you. I take solace in knowing that you will never be able to hurt another little girl, young woman, and that young girl, woman inside myself ever again. It is now time for you to reap what you sow.
I did not ask for you to do what you did. You did it anyways. Now take responsibility for what you have done.
I have a beautiful family today that I would give my life for. I will never let anyone hurt them the way that you have hurt myself and so many, and you cannot take that away from me. I refuse to let you have this power anymore. I refuse to be a victim anymore, and I can proudly state today that I am a survivor.
THE COURT: Thank you for your words.
This is something you finished. You wrote a statement. You publicly said it. You should be proud of yourself. I think it’s the beginning of you finishing everything else you want to and anything else you want to because your words were courageous and powerful, and I can see the strength rise up in you, and you can do anything you want just like that statement.
Congratulations, ma’am.
VICTIM 190: Thank you very much, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Thank you.
VICTIM 190: Appreciate it.
