Michigan state police on Friday walked back a widely reported claim that convicted serial abuser Larry Nassar was among the more than 20,000 people removed from the state's sex offender registry following a Michigan Supreme Court ruling.
The Eaton County prosecuting attorney's office, which participated in prosecuting Nassar, had asserted that the disgraced former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor was removed from the registry after the high court decided in September that the state's Sex Offender Registration Act cannot be applied retroactively to offenses committed before the law's relevant date. The office, led by Republican state attorney general candidate Doug Lloyd, shared a screenshot showing a search for Nassar's name returning zero results.
State police said that was not what happened.
"Information suggesting that convicted sex offender Nassar was removed from the sex offender registry by the Michigan state police because of the Smith decision is incorrect," the agency said in a Friday statement.
US Bureau of Prisons records show Nassar has been imprisoned at the Lewisburg Federal Correctional Institute in Pennsylvania. State police said offenders not currently domiciled, temporarily residing, working, incarcerated or going to school in Michigan do not have the duty to register in Michigan under the act and would not be visible on the state's public sex offender registry.
"If the offender later domiciles, including being incarcerated, temporarily resides, works, or goes to school in Michigan, they would be expected to register and be placed on Michigan's public sex offender registry if still required under Sora at that time," the agency said.
The Eaton County prosecutor's office issued its own statement on Friday correcting the earlier social media post.
"We must correct our earlier social media post about removal of convicted sex offenders from the Michigan sex offender registry. We never contemplated that one of the most notorious sex offenders in the history of the state would not have been registered despite the law requiring otherwise," the office said.
The office said Nassar's Eaton and Ingham County convictions carried offense dates in 2009 and 1998, which fall within the time frame covered by the recent supreme court order. At the time of his 2018 sentencing, the office said, Nassar was incarcerated in Michigan and would have been required to register until being transferred into federal custody out of state.
"We apologize for the confusion," the office said. "As prosecutors, we have a responsibility to provide information to victims and survivors of sexual assault."
The state supreme court's September ruling ordered the removal of more than 20,000 people whose offenses occurred before July 1, 2011 from the state police's online sex offender database.
Michigan lawmakers do not have the authority to reverse the court's decision, but the legislature could pass new legislation to place affected offenders back into the database.
Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to as many as 175 years in state and federal prison after being convicted of sexually abusing women and girls over decades while working at Michigan State University and serving as a doctor for Team USA Gymnastics. More than 150 women and girls have accused him of assault, and his earliest projected federal release date is in 2068.
Nassar pleaded guilty in November 2017 to multiple counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He survived being stabbed multiple times in July 2023 while imprisoned.