Michigan State University. Photo: Shutterstock

Two in-house lawyers at Michigan State University testified Monday about their key roles in investigating sports doctor Larry Nassar and whether they communicated with former school president Lou Anna Simon, who is criminally charged with lying to investigators about what she knew in 2014.

The two witnesses were Granberry Russell, an attorney in charge of the school's Title IX office, and Kristine Moore, now an assistant general counsel at the school but then assistant director in the Title IX office reporting to Russell. A university spokeswoman said neither woman was doing interviews during the litigation.

Moore investigated a 2014 sexual abuse complaint against Nassar and cleared him of any wrongdoing. She told the court Monday her investigation was independent of school administrators and she believes she followed correct procedures.

Amanda Thomashow, who filed the April 2014 complaint against Nassar, had been a school cheerleader who went to the sports clinic for treatment of a hip injury. Thomashow has said she told Moore that Nassar fondled her breasts and rubbed her vagina as purported treatment for the injury. He became aroused, and she grabbed his hands and removed them from her body.

Moore testified that she contacted Thomashow three weeks after the complaint was filed and interviewed her by phone for 44 minutes. Moore said she didn't realize it was a sexual abuse complaint at first, or she wouldn't have done the interview by phone. Her notes were introduced as evidence over objections of the defense attorneys.

Moore also said she did not inform the local police department of the complaint.

After talking with four people who knew and supported Nassar, Moore issued a written report that cleared him of sexual abuse, blaming the patient's misunderstanding of the treatment. Moore's report did not mention Nassar's erection, or that he refused to stop sexually touching Thomashow until she physically removed his hands.

Not long after the investigation and report, Moore was promoted to assistant general counsel.

The lawyer said she had “very little communication” with the university president, but she emailed her supervisor, Russell, a summary of her findings.

Prosecutor Scott Teter, assistant state attorney general, has contended that Russell communicated those findings to Simon during a regularly scheduled meeting.

Teter told the Eaton County court that an email, handwritten notes, a folder with Nassar's name on it, an agenda item and an entry on Simon's calendar would show that the former president discussed the sexual assault investigation into Nassar during a May 2014 meeting with Russell. A spokesman for the Michigan Attorney's General Office said Teter would not comment during the litigation.

Simon is charged with two misdemeanors and two felonies, and is accused of lying to authorities about what she knew of the Nassar scandal and when she knew it. She has repeatedly said she does not remember hearing Nassar's name until the scandal broke publicly in 2016.

Her defense attorney is Mayer Morganroth, co-founder and senior partner at Morganroth & Morganroth in Birmingham, Michigan. He told Corporate Counsel on Monday the “case is absurd.”

The hearing continues Tuesday with Morganroth's cross-examination of Russell.

Nassar has since been convicted of sexually abusing numerous student athletes, and is serving what amounts to a life term in prison. The university has agreed to pay some $500 million to over 300 women who have said Nassar sexually abused them between 1997 and 2016. The U.S. Department of Education has issued a draft report that harshly criticized the university's general counsel office for its failures during the scandal.

Moore's two supervisors in the general counsel's office—GC Robert Noto and deputy GC Kristine Zayko—have departed the university.

Prosecutors have estimated that about 60 women were sexually abused by Nassar between the 2014 complaint and the time Nassar's abuse became public in 2016. Nassar was fired.

Simon's preliminary hearing on the charges opened in early February, was continued to this month and is expected to conclude around April 16. Simon remains on faculty at the school, but is on leave during the litigation. The university is paying her legal fees.