He will spend the next 40 to 175 years in prison for multiple counts of sexual abuse and child pornography. But in the early interviews in 2014 and 2016 with police, Larry Nassar said he was the victim, not the woman and girls he abused.
He explained that it was a medical procedure and those young ladies that thought he was abusing them were confused.
During the interview, detectives talked about two patients, dozens of procedures and even questioned Nassar on why he was sexually aroused during some of those treatments.
FOX 47 obtained more than three hours of those police interviews and what you will see and hear will be Nassar surprised and even shocked with the allegations that he abused patients and how he tried to explain it all.
You also hear him take responsibility, but now in the way you think.
"This is a treatment that I lectured on. I lectured on not only here at Michigan State. I was the keynote guest speaker in Australia to the Australian Olympic Sports Medicine for this very technique," said Larry Nassar, former sports doctor.
And it was that technique that has led Nassar to a series of criminal sexual conduct charges in early 2018.
For each allegation Nassar stuck to his story, she's confused and it's a standard medical procedure.
Nassar said, "even if I remembering saying specifically XYZ if she heard ABC, it does it really matter that I said XYZ."
In August 2014. Michigan State University Police interviewed Nassar after a graduate student said he sexually assaulted her during an appointment.
Nassar said he first heard of her complaint through a colleague, Dr. Jeffrey Kovan.
"That she felt violated, that I was doing like I touched her breast and I moved her underwear out of the way. And I'm like, yeah. I do that all the time," Nassar told the detective.
This interview lasted more than two hours. MSU police wanted charges, but Ingham County prosecutor denied the request.
But two years later, Nassar was back before police as another victim came forward.
"It's like blindsiding someone, You're doing this and you're doing it for good to help someone. And they're giving you the positive feedback that you're helping them. How do I know I'm hurting them if I'm getting the positive feedback that I'm helping them?" Nassar questioned.
That second complaint was filed by survivor Rachael Denhollander.
"Has there been another complaint?" Nassar asked the detective in a 2016 interview. "I'm just like confused right now," he continued to say.
He admits that patients have questioned the technique.
"There has been a few times where that has been brought up. And each and every time they were sexually abused. So, that's what, that's what I'm saying when they're uncomfortable like that... there have been three cases. And all three of them were sexually abused. Okay? So that's why I'm like, yeah. That's why I'm like is there something more? What am I missing? Because that's what I'm thinking all the time. If someone is tensing up or having an issue with this, my first inclination is: were they ever sexually abused?" Nassar said.
Nassar even brought his laptop into the interview to show the detective the procedure, and continued to defend what he was doing,
"Listen to the words I am saying too and just watch my body movements when I am checking things, when my hands are on the patient, please watch. Because I can see how (she says) I'm messaging her breast... (I say) no hows that there, see my hands move. And yes it's medical, I totally...I don't know how else to say it but I'm totally taken by surprise but at the same time feel like crap that somebody would think I was doing something inappropriate to them because this is how I make my living, this is what I do. I have helped scores of people. I feel like this little deviant and that's not right." Nassar told the detective.
Nassar takes responsibility, in a way.
"When did I see that patient? what did I do? what clues? what am I missing here?" Nassar questioned himself.
"This is a normal process for me, that's I'm like why this person, why this time, what the heck happened?" Nassar said to police.
But the one thing that doesn't change is how Nassar truly believes he is a victim too.
He said, "how did I miss that signal that she felt that I was doing it inappropriately? Was I really that off that day or what? That's my issue and it's hard because it was so long ago. But it's what I do all of the time."
Nassar continued to question himself out loud, "Was I tired, not enough sleep that night, I'm just trying to figure out, was I off, I wasn't sick, you know what I mean...What made me out of sync, what made me not be able to recognize that I was making a patient uncomfortable."
Throughout the two interviews, Nassar talked about how he's sorry that he missed signs but is confident that he was communicating and those patients that had an issue didn't give him feedback to tell him any differently.
The former doctor said, "I am trying my best to help the patient. I'm trying to get real-time feedback from them. And I've helped so many people. It hurts my brain that as I am talking to them."
When discussing his relationships with his patients he says it's always been about trust.
He told police, "do you understand the trust that people have to have in you? That's what hurts, that's sacred to me."
Nassar said he believes the allegations came from him liking a picture on the victim's social media page.
"That's what hurts. How did I violate that trust, what did I say wrong, what did I do wrong ? did I breach it? was I trying to get in her space," he said.
But denied he crossed the line. He explained, "I don't even know if she was in the picture. Why would that set her off? What other issues did I open up pandora box for her? Was she stalked before what other issues are there?"
"Do you ever get aroused during these exams?" an MSU detective asked in 2016.
Catching him what appears to be off guard in the video.
"Do I get aroused during the exam?" Nassar asked back.
"Do you ever get an erection?" clarified the detective.
"obviously you don't ..." Nassar said.
The detective asked again, "is there a reason that you would during an exam?"
Nassar responded, "I shouldn't be getting an erection during an exam,"
"The reason why I'm talking about this is because this young girl and her mother both observed this on more than one occasion during treatment," explained the detective.
Nassar stumbled through his answer, "If there was arousal it's, it's, it's you know what I mean? It would be because of, whatever, I don't know."
"Well, what do you meant whatever?" asked the detective.
"When you're a guy sometimes you get an erection," Nassar said.
Nassar even went on to say he will struggle with the accusations.
"That's going to be the big issue I have to wrestle with. Why didn't I understand that at that time that I had a patient feeling that way? That will never leave me, that's my self-torture I guess you could say. Yes, she was victimized, yes I was victimized to myself. Hurting someone like that ain't right., it's not right, that hurts me to hurt her," said Nassar.
The investigation continues into MSU, Twistars and other agencies that Nassar had connections with to see if anyone else was aware of the abuse.
