Victim's Attorneys Manly Stewart & Finaldi File Lawsuit Against U.S.A. Gymnastics And Huntington Beach SCATS Gym For Alleged Sexual Abuse Of U.S. National Team Gymnast

IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys for Jane "AJ" Doe, a former member of the United States Women's National Gymnastics Team and World Championships Team filed suit alleging that U.S.A. Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar sexually assaulted and abused her while she was training at the U.S. Gymnastics Team National Training Center at Károlyi Ranch. The complaint further alleges that the victim was sexually abused and harassed by Don Peters, her former coach and the former owner of SCATS Gym in Huntington Beach, California.

The lawsuit alleges that Peters, who became famous as the Coach of the 1984 U.S. Women's Olympic Gymnastics Team, "used his position of trust, authority and access" to the victim "in order to sexually abuse and harass her for a period of years while she was between the approximate ages of 8 and 16 years old."

The lawsuit further alleges that "Defendants were apprised or had reason to know or were put on notice of (Peters') past sexual abuse of children…"

"Our client was the victim of a man who acted as her coach, mentor and confidant and a doctor whom she trusted with her medical care. Their despicable acts took place when she was a child between the ages of 12 to 18. USA Gymnastics, the Károlyi's National Training Center and SCATS Gym had a duty to protect her. Instead they allowed these criminals to treat her as a sexual object, robbing her of her youthful innocence and causing enduring pain and suffering," said victim's attorney John Manly, a partner in Manly, Stewart & Finaldi.

According to the complaint, coach Don Peters would "require the plaintiff to remove all of her clothing, except for her bra and underwear, on a daily basis and would make sexual comments to the plaintiff."

In 2013 Don Peters was banned for life by USA Gymnastics after three other women accused him of sexually abusing them in the 1980s.

Dr. Larry Nassar has been named as a defendant in 26 other lawsuits which accuse him sexually assaulting women from 1999 through 2006 through vaginal and anal penetration without the use of gloves or lubricant. Many of his alleged victims were minors ages 9 to 18.

In November 2016, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged Nassar with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual assault with a person under 13. The charges allege that Nassar repeatedly assaulted a girl between 1998 and 2005, beginning when she was six-years-old.

In December 2016, Nassar was arrested on Federal child pornography charges. The two count indictment states that Nassar possessed "thousands of images of child pornography."

FBI investigators found at least 37,000 images and videos of child pornography in his garbage. According to published reports, some videos show Nassar sexually assaulting girls under the age of 12.

Click here for complaint.

Manly, Stewart & Finaldi is California's leading law firm representing child victims of sexual abuse.  The firm has represented more than 150 victims of clergy sexual abuse in California and hundreds of others throughout the United States.  The firm also represented plaintiffs in the $140,000,000 settlement against LAUSD in the Miramonte case, the largest sex abuse settlement against a School District in the US.

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SOURCE Manly, Stewart & Finaldi LLP