A Michigan Supreme Court Ruling Removed Larry Nassar and More Than 20,000 Others from the State’s Sex Offender Registry

by · Thought Catalog
Scott Olson / Getty Images

Gossip

By Chrissy Stockton

Updated 5 minutes ago, October 2, 2026

Larry Nassar’s removal from Michigan’s sex offender registry leaves his prison sentences unchanged. The former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor, 63, is among more than 20,000 people affected by a September 9 Michigan Supreme Court decision barring the state from applying its current registration rules retroactively to offenses committed before July 2011.

Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, and Maggie Nichols sit together before testifying at the Senate Judiciary hearing examining the FBI’s handling of the Nassar investigation on Capitol Hill, September 15, 2021. Photo by Saul Loeb – Pool / Getty Images.

Nassar is serving a 40- to 175-year sentence for sexually abusing hundreds of girls. He also faces a 60-year prison term on child pornography charges. Us Weekly reported that the registry ruling doesn’t change those sentences.

Larry Nassar stands at sentencing in Eaton County Circuit Court on February 5, 2018, in Charlotte, Michigan, where Judge Janice Cunningham handed down a 40-to-125-year prison term for criminal sexual assault. Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images.

The news lands years after Nassar’s abuse became a national reckoning. In 2018, 141 survivors took the stage at the ESPYs to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Gymnast Aly Raisman described how their reports of abuse had been dismissed: “The intention? To silence us in favor of money, medals and reputation. But we persisted, and finally someone listened and believed us.”

Tears streaming down her face, McKayla Maroney wipes her eye with a tissue while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill about the FBI’s handling of the Nassar abuse investigation, September 15, 2021. Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images.

A prosecutor’s office criticized the registry decision in a September 27 Facebook statement, naming both Nassar and former Lansing doctor Kassem Hallak. Hallak, 67, received a 7- to 15-year sentence following his 2013 conviction for criminal sexual conduct involving several female patients, and has since been released.

Simone Biles presses a hand to her forehead and bows her head as emotions overtake her while delivering testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, September 15, 2021. Photo by GRAEME JENNINGS / AFP via Getty Images.

The office argued that the court could have restored the registration rules that existed in 2011 to keep offenders on the registry. Its statement said victims and the community had expected the registry to offer protection and awareness, calling those expectations “assurances that have now been removed by the Court’s ruling.”

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