Disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar is stabbed multiple times in prison

Former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was stabbed multiple times Sunday in an assault at a federal prison in Sumterville, Fla.

The 59-year-old former sports physician, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to molesting dozens of young female athletes under his care and possessing child pornography, is in stable condition as of Monday morning, according to the Associated Press, which reports that Nassar was stabbed in the chest and back during an altercation with another inmate.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons told NPR that an inmate was assaulted around 2:35 p.m. ET Sunday, requiring immediate "life-saving measures." The agency did not directly name Nassar as the victim, citing privacy policies. The BOP said no other inmates were injured and that the FBI was notified.

"We were saddened to hear that Larry Nassar was violently attacked while in custody," the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, which has been representing Nassar in his appeals process, told NPR.

It hopes to get answers soon, the office, said, adding that incarcerated people face dangerous circumstances every day in U.S. prisons.

Sunday's assault wasn't the first time Nassar was attacked in prison.

Nassar was assaulted by another inmate in May 2018 while incarcerated at a prison in Arizona, where he began serving a lengthy sentence on child pornography charges. He was briefly moved to a facility in Oklahoma before being transferred to the Coleman II penitentiary in Florida, where he's currently incarcerated.

The former doctor became an infamous household name in 2018 when he was sentenced to as many as 175 years in prison. His crimes were also highlighted in the 2020 Netflix documentary Athlete A, which chronicled the investigation into Nassar's crimes.

Some of Nassar's victims were Olympic athletes, including Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Gabby Douglas, and Aly Raisman. Many of them — some 90 claimants in all -- filed suit against the FBI in 2022 for failing to act on reports of Nassar's misconduct, seeking damages of more than $1 billion.

A Justice Department probe found the FBI mishandled the case against Nassar and failed to respond to the allegations with "the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required." The DOJ also said in its July 2021 report that the FBI made numerous and fundamental errors and violated multiple policies along the way.

FBI Director Christopher Wray apologized to Nassar's many victims during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September 2021.

"I'm sorry for what you and your families have been through. I'm sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again," Wray said. "And I'm especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in in 2015 and failed."

USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee were also taken to court for mishandling athlete allegations against the former physician. In 2021, the organizations agreed to pay $380 million to Nassar's victims, as well as to implement reforms to prevent future abuses.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.