You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
A survivor of abuse by former Michigan State University faculty member Larry Nassar accused Michigan State’s interim president of offering her $250,000 in a March 28 meeting, according to the Lansing State Journal.
Kaylee Lorincz, 18, told Board of Trustees members Friday that she and her mother requested a meeting with John Engler two weeks ago to introduce herself as one of the survivors of Nassar's abuse. Lorincz said Friday the board had done little to help Nassar survivors, and she expressed shock regarding Engler's "callous and disrespectful words."
In the March 28 meeting with Engler and Carol Viventi, vice president and special counsel to the president, Lorincz, who is one of 200 women suing Michigan over Nassar's abuse, described feeling coerced into settling a suit without her lawyer present.
"Mr. Engler then looked directly at me and asked, 'Right now, if I wrote you a check for $250,000, would you take it?'" Lorincz told trustees Friday. "When I explained that it’s not about the money for me and that I just want to help, he said, 'Well, give me a number.' He also said that he had met with Rachael Denhollander and that she gave him a number."
Denhollander, the first survivor to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse, denied talking to Engler about money.
As Lorincz's testimony hit the allotted three minutes, Engler interrupted the speech to silence her. In response, a chant of "Let her speak" broke out from a crowd of students, activists and parents of Nassar survivors, according to the Lansing State Journal.
Engler confirmed meeting with Lorincz in a statement Friday, but said “our memories and interpretations of the March 28 meeting are different than hers."
Emily Guerrant, a college spokesperson who attended the meeting, reportedly told Lorincz's mother that Engler wasn't offering a settlement but rather was discussing what an acceptable figure would be. Guerrant told the Lansing State Journal that "an official settlement was not on the table" during the meeting.
Michigan State intends to resume settling civil suits filed by Nassar survivors April 25.
