Engler Ignored Sexual Assault Claims As Governor: Report

After former Michigan Gov. John Engler was appointed interim president of Michigan State University Wednesday, he promised to act "as if my own daughters were on this campus" and empathized with those who were abused by the school's gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.

However, a published report indicates he didn't show the same regard for women who were incarcerated in the state's prisons. Published by public interest outlet Bridge Magazine on Wednesday, the report cites a letter written by Engler when he was governor to a United Nations delegation that wanted to investigate female inmates' claims of sexual assault. In that letter, Engler dismissed the women's claims as "without merit."

The letter, which was obtained and published by the magazine on Wednesday, claims that “the State of Michigan has not violated the civil and constitutional rights of inmates.” Evidence in a 2008 lawsuit brought by some inmates, however, painted a picture of a sexually abusive environment inside Michigan's prisons where male guards raped, groped and conducted unnecessary searches of women inmates. In 2009, Gov. Jennifer Granholm authorized a payout of $100 million to settle a collection of cases brought by the women.

Engler initially refused to comment for the Bridge story, saying he gets too many press requests to answer questions about this issue. A spokesman for Engler eventually told the magazine that Engler wasn’t responsible for female prisoners while he served as governor of Michigan, saying, “That was the (Michigan Department of Corrections). He was not involved in those decisions.”

Deborah LaBelle, the Ann Arbor lawyer who represented some of the female inmates in a 1996 suit, expressed incredulity when Bridge asked her to comment on Engler’s appointment to lead MSU through its recovery from the Nassar scandal.

“You get the guy responsible for the largest ever sexual abuse settlement in the history of the state?”

For full coverage, check out the story in Bridge Magazine.

File photo by the Associated Press.