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Police Department Apologizes for Its Handling of Larry Nassar Allegations: 'We Wish We Had This One Back.'


While court is adjourned until tomorrow in the Eaton County sentencing of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, but there is still news breaking around the case. The local police in Meridian Township convened a press conference Thursday afternoon apologize for their initial handling of allegations against Nassar by Brianne Randall-Gay in 2004.

Randall-Gay, then 17, filed a sexual assault complaint to the local police that claimed Nassar touched her breast and vagina for several minutes during a visit that was meant to be an exam about her scoliosis but it was never prosecuted. Per a newly released police report, a few interviews were conducted but the lead detective concluded—after speaking to Nassar—that the reported abuse was a legitimate medical procedure. According to Deadspin, there is no indication that the police contacted other medical professionals for an opinion, nor did they contact Children’s Protective Services. Deadspin also called Sgt. Al Spencer, who reportedly oversaw the case, and he told them, “To be honest with you, I don’t recall the case at all. I don’t have any memory of it.” McCready is still on the force, while Spencer is retired.

During the emotional press conference, Meridian Township manager Frank Walsh and Chief of Police Dave Hall publicly apologized to Randall-Gay, who participated via Skype from Seattle. Walsh and Hall both recounted the emotional phone call they made to Randall-Gay (and her family) to apologize for the mishandling of her case back in 2004. They offered to fly to Seattle to apologize in person and when she let them know she had decided to come to read an impact statement at Nassar’s sentencing, they offered to pay for her ticket. They were also in the courtroom that day. Both expressed gratitude for the grace that Randall-Gay had shown them in accepting their apology and vowed to make it a mission to not let this happen again.

To that point, Chief Hall outlined three initiatives for the township to undertake. First, they will be instituting new training procedures for all of their officers and civilian staff, bringing in experts from outside the force to conduct said training. Randall-Gay has also agreed to film a video about her own experience for the officers to learn from. The second initiative is to look back at all criminal sexual conduct reports (CSCs) from 2000 to the present day to make sure nothing has been missed. Hall confirmed that no other medical expert was consulted in Randall-Gay’s case and that there is no reason to believe that the prosecutor’s office was ever made aware of the case.

“We wish we had this one back,” said Hall. “We want to do better.” From this point forward, the chief will now sign off on all CSC reports. And finally, Randall-Gay herself will be helping to develop a community-wide outreach program to young people understand criminal sexual conduct and how to report it to the authorities.

Randall-Gay said that the apology has helped her further process her trauma. “It will not erase the pain I suffered, but it was therapeutic.” She also vowed to continue to work toward systemic change, “I fight today […] so the next little girl won’t have to suffer for 14 years.” It is incredibly powerful, even as a viewer, to watch people own their mistakes and try to make changes that will better their community. Let’s hope others follow suit. As Walsh said, “We can’t rewind the tape, but we can have an effect on the tape moving forward.”



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Ann Curry Says She’s 'Not Surprised' About Matt Lauer Allegations


During a highly anticipated interview with CBS This Morning, veteran journalist Ann Curry said she wasn’t surprised by allegations of sexual misconduct that brought down her former Today co-host Matt Lauer. In fact, Curry added that she felt most of her female colleagues understood that a “climate of verbal harassment” existed at NBC, where she worked until 2015

On Wednesday, Curry sat down with CBS This Morning to promote her PBS docuseries, We’ll Meet Again. The conversation inevitably turned to her disgraced former co-host, and Curry was asked if she believed Lauer abused his power at NBC.

“I’m trying to do no harm in this conversations,” Curry said. “I can tell you that I’m not surprised by the allegations.”

When CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King pushed her about what her comments meant, Curry was evasive, but she explained, “I’m walking down that road I’m trying not to hurt people. I know what it’s like to be publicly humiliated, I never did anything wrong to be publicly humiliated, and I don’t want to cause that pain to someone else.”

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Still, Curry was willing to speak out against a pervasive culture of harassment that she says she observed at NBC, saying, “I would be surprised if many women did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed. I think it would be surprising if someone said they didn’t see that. It was verbal sexual harassment.”

Curry added that the effect #MeToo has had exposing sexual misconduct is long overdue, and said she hopes people focus on supporting women who have bravely come forward with so many disturbing allegations.

“We’re talking about the scandal, the scandal, scandal. What about the victims? What are we going to do to remove the stigma and the shame? What are we going to do to make sure these women work and are not sidelined and prevented from contributing to the greater good that we all are trying to do?” she said.

Curry left the Today show in 2012, following rumors that she’d a contentious relationship with Lauer and that he had been behind her ouster. Speculation intensified when NBC aired Curry’s tearful goodbye to Today viewers; in the clip, Curry visibly flinches after Lauer kisses her cheek.

Curry continued working at NBC until starting her own production company in 2015. Lauer, meanwhile, was fired from NBC last November after colleagues accused him of sexual harassment. He’d been the Today show’s anchor for more than 20 years.



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How the Aziz Ansari Allegations Opened Up a New Frontier in the #MeToo Conversation


In the wake of a week when #TimesUp and #MeToo again dominated headlines—starting at the Golden Globes and continuing with allegations against James Franco—a new frontier in the conversation around sexual consent and coercion opened up over the weekend following unsettling allegations concerning actor and comedian Aziz Ansari.

In a report posted January 13 on Babe.net, a woman—who gave her story under the pseudonym “Grace”—shared that she went out on a date with Ansari in September 2017. When they returned to Ansari’s apartment after dinner, Grace says things “escalated” quickly, to the point where she felt deeply uncomfortable. According to the Babe story, “when Ansari told her he was going to grab a condom within minutes of their first kiss … [she] said something like, ‘Whoa, let’s relax for a sec, let’s chill.’” Grace says even though Ansari seemed to at first understand and acknowledge her discomfort, she says he continued to pressure her into hooking up by following her around the apartment as she moved out of his way, asking her several times when he could have sex with her, and still making sexual advances even after she expressed discomfort. She finally insisted on leaving.

Ansari responded to the allegations late Sunday night, effectively confirming the series of events Grace told. Ansari said when he received the text message from Grace, he was “surprised and concerned” that what he perceived as “by all indications…completely consensual” sexual activity “was not the case for her.” He added that “I took her words to heart and responded privately after taking the time to process what she had said.” (You can read Ansari’s full response here.)

The allegations—and his response—sparked a heated conversation on social media and online, with some women seeing the allegations as a new, necessary discussion around consent, and others seeing the whole dust-up as overwrought—or worse, an unfair character assassination of Ansari, who has won accolades (including a recent Golden Globe award) for his show, Master of None. Some are even saying that claiming this type of experience as assault justifies calling the #MeToo movement a witch hunt and that it undercuts the stories of women who have been raped or experienced “more serious” sexual misconduct.

A piece titled “The Humiliation of Aziz Ansari” published by The Atlantic took this critical view one step further, comparing Grace’s approaching a website with her allegations to revenge porn. The writer of the piece, Caitlin Flanagan, stressed that this kind of behavior was not only normal but expected when she was a young adult—an odd twist on the defense Harvey Weinstein actually used in the wake of the allegations against him last fall.

The writer takes some damning shots at Grace and the journalist who told her story, saying “Together, the two women may have destroyed Ansari’s career, which is now the punishment for every kind of male sexual misconduct, from the grotesque to the disappointing.” She goes on to make an even more generalized attack on the young women most prominently making noise in this #MeToo moment:

“Apparently there is a whole country full of young women who don’t know how to call a cab, and who have spent a lot of time picking out pretty outfits for dates they hoped would be nights to remember. They’re angry and temporarily powerful and last night they destroyed a man who didn’t deserve it.”

For many women, though, the description of the interaction was a frustratingly familiar one: a date that turns awkward; a sexual encounter that one party felt was coercive and the other party felt was consensual. It’s one of the reasons that Grace’s story—and Ansari’s response—has ignited such a frenzied debate. Sure, this kind of behavior is the kind of thing that many women have dealt with—and, in many cases, created systems of managing—but does that make it OK? Writer Arnesa Buljusmic-Kustura captured the divide thusly on Twitter: “I saw someone tweet something like ‘if what Aziz Ansari did was sexual assault then every woman I know has been sexually assaulted’ and like yeah, actually.”

This experience sounds normal because it is a common experience for so many women. But the fact that it is common is really an example of how much we have normalized these situations—often putting the responsibility on women to get themselves out of (or avoid) uncomfortable situations, instead of making others accountable for their pushy, coercive behavior.

Let’s be clear: The point of the #MeToo movement is not to destroy men, but to create a safe space for women to share their experiences of sexual misconduct and hopefully give validation to the scores of other women who have been grappling with similar situations that have haunted them. While some people may have read this woman’s account and thought, “That’s not assault,” others have argued—justifiably—that this is, in fact, exactly what being taken advantage of sexually feels like. And no matter what, our default posture should be to believe and listen to these women.

Related Stories:
–Post-Weinstein, These Are the Powerful Men Facing Sexual Harassment Allegations
–Denouncing #MeToo Is Feminism Devouring Itself
–Five Women Accuse James Franco of Sexually Inappropriate and Exploitative Behavior in New Report





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Vice Media Under Fire for Rampant Sexual Misconduct Allegations, the 'New York Times' Reports


Several months after allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein began a wave of change regarding how sexual harassment allegations are handled at work, Vice Media has become the subject of a new New York Times investigation. The report, published December 23, shone light on four sexual harassment or defamation settlements and published more than two dozen further allegations by current and former employees who say they’ve witnessed or experienced sexual misconduct at the hands of Vice employees and executives.

According to the Times, the publication’s president, Andrew Creighton, allegedly fired an employee for rejecting his advances, for which he reportedly paid a $135,000 settlement in 2016. The Times also reports that Vice reached a settlement after former head of Vice News Jason Mojica allegedly punished a female employee after they got involved sexually. He was fired in November. In January 2016, the company settled with a woman who alleged that Vice producer Rhys James asked her if she had sex with black men and what color her nipples were; James was put on leave last month. Lastly, Vice reportedly settled in 2003 with a writer who said the publication falsely wrote that she agreed to sleep with a rapper she interviewed. In addition, a woman interviewed by the Times described a coworker putting her hand on his crotch outside of work. Still another alleged she was the target of unwanted kissing.

“We have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive,” Vice co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi said in a statement to Vice staff. “Cultural elements from our past, dysfunction, and mismanagement were allowed to flourish unchecked. That includes a detrimental ‘boy’s club’ culture that fostered inappropriate behavior that permeated throughout the company.”

In response to the allegations, Vice fired three employees, brought on a new human resources leader, created a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board that includes Gloria Steinem, and issued a prohibition on supervisors dating people working under them.

“The misogyny might look different than you would have expected it to in the 1950s, but it was still there, it was still ingrained,” Kayla Ruble, a journalist who worked for Vice from 2014 to 2016, told The New York Times. “This is a wakeup call.”

Related: Powerful People in Entertainment Who Have Been Accused of Sexual Harassment or Assault



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Matt Lauer Has Broken His Silence on Sexual Harassment Allegations


Following his swift termination from NBC’s Today, Matt Lauer has broken his silence about sexual harassment allegations that have been brought forward against him.

Taking the form of a statement read by Savannah Guthrie at the start of Thursday morning’s broadcast, Lauer’s remarks acknowledged and apologized for some, but not all, of his reported behavior:

“There are no words to express my sorrow and regret for the pain I
have caused others by words and actions. To the people I have hurt, I
am truly sorry. As I am writing this I realize the depth of the damage
and disappointment I have left behind at home and at NBC. Some of what
is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is
enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed.
I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly.
Repairing the damage will take a lot of time and soul searching and
I’m committed to beginning that effort. It is now my full time job.
The last two days have forced me to take a very hard look at my own
troubling flaws. It’s been humbling. I am blessed to be surrounded by
the people I love. I thank them for their patience and grace.”

On Wednesday, Guthrie and fellow co-host Hoda Kotb began Today with an announcement that Lauer had been fired following “a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” Though NBC News Chairman Andy Lack told employees that it was the first complaint of this nature to be filed against the former anchor, “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

Not long after news broke, Variety published a shocking report detailing Lauer’s alleged sexual harassment—which included gifting a sex toy to one female coworker (alongside a note detailing how he planned to use it on her) and installing a button under his desk that could lock his door remotely (one that he reportedly used to keep women in his office without fear of interruption).

The New York Times further reported that at least two additional women filed complaints with NBC following Lauer’s termination—including one woman who said that he sexually assaulted her in his office in 2001.





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Post-Weinstein, These Are the Powerful Men Facing Sexual Harassment Allegations


After The New York Times published an explosive report detailing decades of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, dozens of women came forward with their own accusations against the Hollywood mogul. Within a week, Weinstein had been fired from his company and expelled from the Motion Picture Academy.

Now, in a post-Weinstein world, legions of women have felt empowered to speak out and share their own #MeToo stories—both on social media and in major news outlets. Weinstein sparked an avalanche of accusations against high-profile men in media, politics, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, all with varying degrees of repercussions. Sexual harassment in the workplace is certainly nothing new, but it’s safe to say the issue is now, rightfully, taking center stage.

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the high-profile men who have accused of sexual harassment and/or assault since Weinstein, which we’ll keep updating as new allegations surface.

Note: This list centers on high-profile men who have experienced a mainstream, public fall-out following the accusations.

Khaliha Hawkins and Abby Gardner contributed to this report



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