women's gymnastics team at the Olympics there. Larry Nassar is fresh off a big trip to Athens. And so I thought - well, I'm probably not going to be able to get in, but let me give it a try.
So Brianne's mom, Ellen Speckman-Randall, asked around for a good one.ĮLLEN SPECKMAN-RANDALL: And it pretty much came back, you want Nassar. SMITH: But then a specialist said - you know what? - try seeing a sports medicine doctor. She would spend three days a week at physical therapy, the chiropractor's. And by the time she was in high school, Brianne's battling chronic back pain. SMITH: Brianne took the silver bullet to a lot of doctors' appointments, too, because Brianne has scoliosis, which means her spine is curved instead of straight. A few days a week, she'd head to her part-time job making sandwiches at Quiznos. WELLS: At home, she'd do her homework, catch the countdown on MTV. SMITH: On the way home from school, she'd rock some Britney Spears. But it did the job for the time.īRITNEY SPEARS: (Singing) You're toxic. RANDALL-GAY: I called it, like, the silver bullet because it was just super tiny. After school, she'd hop in her little silver Dodge Neon. Haslett is a small town just 5 miles away from Michigan State University, where Larry worked. SMITH: That September, Brianne was a senior at Haslett High School. You're listening to BELIEVED, a podcast about how Larry Nassar abused so many for so long. SMITH: This incident with Brianne in 2004, it'll show you not just what Larry was doing to so many of his patients but how he got away with it again and again.
Larry Nassar would admit in court that he sexually abused children. WELLS: In this episode, we're taking you back - 13 years before Dr. I was like - I even think I told her something like, I don't want that to happen, thinking I made a mistake and feeling guilty for ever reporting him. And it's so weird to me now, but I remember feeling so guilty after that. RANDALL-GAY: I do remember telling the nurse - saying to her, you know, what if no one believes me? What if everyone thinks I'm lying? And she said, you know, people who are lying about this don't have the details like you have, and this man's going to lose his license. WELLS: And the nurse gives her a pelvic exam and also asks a lot of very personal questions. But the police escort means Brianne skips the line, goes right back into an exam room. SMITH: Brianne remembers the emergency room as packed. The police want her to go straight to the local hospital for a rape exam. WELLS: Brianne Randall-Gay has just come from the police station, where she reported what Dr. Everyone's going to think something's going on. I was like - oh, my gosh - everyone's going to find out. RANDALL-GAY: And he's just looking at me like, what is going on? And I just was terrified. And she remembers, he spots her with the police. SMITH: This guy from her high school has a broken arm or something. And I actually see a kid from my high school sitting there. She's with her mom and a police officer.īRIANNE RANDALL-GAY: I mean, I show up in the emergency room. Septema 17-year-old girl walks towards the bright lights of a hospital in Lansing, Mich. And just a heads-up - this episode talks about sexual assault of a teenager in detail. If you haven't heard Episode 1, start there.