Judge Rosemarie Aquilina Full Remarks to Larry Nassar | NBC News

I don't know if you all know this and I know that the world is watching I know this because I'm on the bench every day and this isn't the only heinous crime that appears in this court the National Crime Victimization survey that's done by the Justice Department annually reports that 310 out of every 1000 assaults are reported to police which means that two out of three go unreported the voices of the survivors have asked everyone report keep your voice up Rachel's voice hopefully will raise these numbers of reports and all of your voices but that statistic does not include children 12 and under one in ten children will be sexually abused by their 18th birthday one in seven girls one in 25 boys by their 18th birthday that means that in the United States I'm not talking about any other country but in the United States 400,000 babies born in the u.s. will become victims of child sexual abuse it stops now speak out like these survivors become part of the army I do one case at a time and I really so very much appreciate all of you thank yous I've read some of the Twitter's and Facebook's and all of what's going on in the media I'm not special I'm doing my job if you come into my courtroom any Wednesday and watch sentencing I give everybody a voice I give defendants away their families when they're here I give this immature voice I try to treat everybody like family because that's the justice system that I was raised to believe in I came to this country stateless I'm naturalized my father's Maltese my mother's German and I was raised on old country values and my grandmother always told me and my parents always told me my grandfather to that America is the greatest country I believe that it's why I served in the military that's why I've always some community service I'm not really well-liked because I speak out I don't have many friends because I speak out if you ask me a question you better be ready for the answer I speak out because I want change because I don't believe in hiding the truth and I'm not saying I'm always right but I try I also don't believe that one size fits all when it comes to something another reason I listen I know that there are some judges for every crime they give the same punishment I don't think that's justice I believe in individualized sentencing I follow the Constitution and I believe our system works I also believe these survivors now there's case law about how I can consider what I can consider and first and foremost my sentence reflects the seven in regard to who defendant plaintiff labeled but the remainder of you 161 others add to the credibility of those seven so technically I'm considering everything everyone because you're crying all of your crimes the depth of them have cut into the core of this community and many communities and all of the families and people we don't even know and sir the media has asked me to release your letter I'm not going to do that counsel may object the media may object but there is some information in here that troubles me in regard to the victims and I don't want them revitalized by the words that you have in here but I do want to read some more of your letter and the reason I want to do that is because I've considered it in sentencing as an extent as an extension of your apology and whether I believe it or not so I want you to hear your words I've already read some and I'm not reading everyone well let me begin the federal judge went ballistic at sentencing since I pled guilty to the state cases and spent ten percent on the federal case and ninety percent on the state cases and civil suits she gave me 60 years instead of five to twenty years in parentheses three consecutive 20-year sentences I pleaded guilty to possession of corn from nine two thousand four to twelve two thousand four four months the prosecutor even admitted that I never belonged to any porn site any chatrooms was not on the dark web and also they could not prove I viewed it it was all deleted of course I shared my electronics and I could not prove that show for four months of pouring possession from 2000 for I was sentenced to 60 years not proper appropriate fare going down a few lines what I did in the state cases was medical not sexual but because of the porn I lost all support thus another reason for the state guilty plea let me move down for you so I've tried to avoid a trial to save the stress to this community my family the victims yet look what is happening it is wrong putting these down further I was at the doctor because my treatments worked and those patients that are now speaking out were the same ones that praised and came back over and over and referred family and friends to see me the media convinced them that everything I did was wrong and bad they feel I broke their trust hell hath no fury like a woman scorned it is just a complete nightmare the stories that are being fabricated to sensationalize this then the AG would only accept my plea if I said what I did was not medical and was for my own pleasure they forced me to say that or they were going to trial and not accepting the plea I wanted to plead no contest but the AG refused that I was so manipulated by the AG and now acqua Lina and all I wanted was to minimize stress to everyone like I wrote earlier going down a little bit further in addition with the federal case my medical treatments with the Olympic / National Team gymnastics were discussed as part of the police the FBI investigated them in 2015 and found nothing substantial because it was medical now they are seeking the media attention and financial rewards would you like to withdraw your plea because you are guilty aren't you are you guilty sir the new sign language has become treatment these clothes these air quotes I will never see them again without thinking of you and your despicable acts I don't care how they're used I will always think of quotes and the word treatment it was not treatment what you did it was not medical there is no medical evidence that was ever brought when this case first came to me and I've told you this and I apologized to the Olympians and athletes but I have five children two dogs my parents live with me I work four jobs I don't have much time for television I don't watch sports although last year I was a soccer coach much to the laughter of my family I didn't know anything about you your name or anything that was going on and so when I kept saying we're going to trial here's the date and everyone wanted more time I said nope use the cutoff and then the cases were merged and we delayed it and I still thought well maybe there's a defense of medical treatment why did I think that because it's my job to be fair and impartial but also because my two brothers and my father are very well known and respected doctors real doctors with real treatments and research dedicated to healing I haven't considered that in this case but I have heard from your survivors now that they trust doctors like I trust the doctors in my family and the doctors I go to but I still thought well there's a defense of medical treatment and there are changes in the medical community every day for the betterment so up until the time you fled I believed that maybe there was a defense here despite fulfilling the information I was ready for trial your counsel was ready for trial the Attorney General's Office was ready for trial you sir decided to plead because there was no medical treatment you did this for your pleasure and your control this letter which comes two months after your plea tells me that you have not yet owned what you did that you still think somehow you are right that you are a doctor that you're entitled that you don't have to listen and then you did treatment I wouldn't send my dogs to you sir there's no treatment here you finally told the truth in action is an action silence is indifference justice requires action and a voice and that is what has happened here in this Court a hundred and sixty eight buckets of water or placed on your so-called match that got out of control I also like law enforce or like the Attorney General want to thank law enforcement for their investigation but I also want to be the voice on behalf of these survivors who asks law enforcement to continue their fine work and to also include the federal government there has to be a massive investigation as to why there was inaction why there was silence justice requires more than what I can do on this bench I wanted to also applaud all of the council in via train general's office I want to also applaud defense council you all have done fine work you've made me proud of our legal system we all work together for the betterment of our communities and that is law enforcement prosecutors defense counsel investigators there are countless people it's the only way our system works we need this balance so all of you when I look at myself as Lady Justice my arms are like this they are balanced prosecution defense are balanced it only starts to tip after there's a plea and after I take into consideration everything that's happened so I want everyone to understand I've also done my homework I always do people vs. black alaskey I'm sure I slaughtered the name I apologize but it is spelled in w ACL AWS K I 286 Misha 634 - 2009 case and in it and I want you to clearly understand it says plainly the law does not limit victims impact statements to direct victims it doesn't say and I have found nowhere that limits me from having you here all of your videos as I said before when counsel came to me and said we're not going to go to trial despite our Court having already sent out 200 of the 800 juror requests and they told me their plea now would I consider it move trial there was the agreement between us because I've always and they know it they are familiar with me let people speak and I wanted all victims and we had a discussion about which victims and of course there was an objection to one of them I let it come in anyway that was part of the plea that you entered into to allow the victim impact statements because they after that discussion I know your lawyers as good as they are sat down with you and said the judge is going to allow this and when it was down to it I know it also because this was signed by the Attorney General by defendant and by defendants counsel on November 22nd 2017 aside from the letter that you wrote a couple of months after your plea which tells me you still don't get it there's something I don't understand and I want to make clear sir you knew you had a problem that is clear to me you knew you had a problem from a very young age even before you were a doctor you could have taken yourself away from temptation and you did not but worse yet there isn't a survivor who hasn't come in here and said how world-renowned you were I trust what they say you could have gone anywhere in the world to be treated you could have gone to any resort any doctor place where you could get treatment in Europe they have all sorts of hidden places for things like this no one had to know and you could have found some treatment some help taken some medicine you would have done that if you had cancer I know you would have your about self-preservation but you decided to not address what's inside you that causes this control urge that causes you to be a sexual predator so your urge is escalated and based on the numbers that we all know go unreported I can't even guess how many vulnerable children and families you actually assaulted your decision to assault was precise calculated manipulative devious despicable I don't have to add words because you're survivors have said all of that I don't want to repeat it you can't give them back their innocence their youth you can't give a father back his life before one of your victims her life when she took it I can't return the daughter to the mother the father to the daughter you played on everyone's vulnerability I'm not vulnerable

Channel: NBC News

Views: 647,550

Keywords: nbc news, breaking news, us news, world news, politics, nightly news, current events, top stories, pop culture, business, health, larry nassar victims, larry nassar, sexual abuse, usa gymnastics, gymnastics, nassar, abuse, sexual assault, olympic, doctor, larry nassar sentencing, judge, Rosemarie Aquilina, sentencing, olympics, gymnasts, victims, gymnast, child pornograhy, us gymnastics, sexual misconduct, doctor larryt nassar, Ex-USA Gymnastic Doctor, Sex abuse victims

Id: jHvSF0njyvc

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2018