Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette and special prosecutor William Forsyth requested a first round of records from Michigan State University for their Larry Nassar investigation this weekend. Included in the request were personnel files for several employees who worked with Nassar and physical evidence from former dean William Strampel.
The letter to the school's board of trustees, obtained Monday by ESPN, asked for Strampel's computer, cellphone and any physical or digital work calendars he had.
Strampel's role as the dean of the college of osteopathic medicine made him Nassar's superior for most of the disgraced doctor's time as a university employee. Strampel stepped down from leading the college in December, citing health issues.
"This is the first of what we anticipate could be many requests for information," the letter said. "You are advised that all information that might be relevant to this Department's investigation must be preserved."
Schuette named Forsyth, a former county prosecutor in Michigan, the special counsel dedicated to this investigation at a news conference Saturday. They sent the letter to Michigan State the same day asking for "any and all" records for the following people:
Former gymnastics coach Kathie Klages, who was suspended in February for her actions in the wake of Nassar's arrest. She retired shortly thereafter. Klages asked her gymnasts, some of whom say Nassar sexually abused them, to sign a card for him. She is also accused of discouraging a teenage gymnast in 1997 from lodging a formal complaint about Nassar, her longtime co-worker and friend.
Former university doctor Brooke Lemmen, who was described by some co-workers as Nassar's "protégé" and was one of four experts on a Title IX investigation panel who determined Nassar was using legitimate medical techniques when he sexually assaulted a recently graduated student during an appointment in 2014. Lemmen resigned after she was rebuked by the university for removing several patient files at Nassar's request after he was fired and arrested in 2016. She is also accused of failing to tell her employer that Nassar was forced out of his role as a doctor with USA Gymnastics because of a sexual abuse investigation.
Strampel: The former dean allowed Nassar to continue seeing patients for more than 16 months while Nassar was under police investigation in 2014 and 2015. Strampel set up new guidelines for Nassar to follow while treating any patients in sensitive areas in 2014 but failed to create any system to make sure Nassar was following them. When Nassar alerted Strampel via email in August 2016 that an Indianapolis Star reporter wanted to speak with him about sexual assault allegations, Strampel responded by saying, "I'm on your side."
The letter from Forsyth and Schuette also asked to review any Nassar-related correspondence via email and text from recently resigned university president Lou Anna Simon, recently resigned athletic director Mark Hollis, the eight members of the school's board of trustees and others from the athletic department and medical school staff -- 20 people in all.
In addition, Forsyth and Schuette requested all records of any university investigation into the Nassar matter, including a review conducted by former Chicago federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. He was hired by the school and has said no one there knew that Nassar had committed crimes.
Forsyth and Schuette informed the trustees that the school had two weeks to provide them with the requested information.
Also Monday, trustee Brian Mosallam took to Twitter to demand the immediate resignation of Bob Noto, the Michigan State vice president for legal affairs and general counsel. Mosallam also called for an independent review of the legal department's handling of the Nassar matter.
Nassar was sentenced last week to up to 175 years in state prison for sexually abusing girls and young women, many of them in his role as a doctor at the university's sports medicine clinic. At least six women say they alerted athletic trainers, coaches and other officials at Michigan State about Nassar's abuse, but their calls for help were ignored.
Schuette formally announced plans Saturday for a "top to bottom" investigation of Michigan State to see if anyone else at the university shirked their legal responsibilities in failing to stop Nassar sooner.
"[We] will find out who knew what and when, who took action, who failed to take action, what did or did not happen, and what should have happened," Schuette said at the news conference. "No individual and no department at Michigan State University is off-limits."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.