A victim of former Michigan State University sports medicine doctor Larry Nassar says she was offered a $250,000 settlement last month by Interim University President John Engler during an impromptu meeting.
Mlive.com reports that Kaylee Lorincz, 18, made the assertion Friday during the university's Board of Trustees meeting. She says she felt she was being coerced into a settlement when Engler made the offer.
The conversation occurred during a March 28 meeting with Lorincz, her mother, Lisa, and Carol Viventi, the university's Special Counsel to the President.
Lorincz is one of 279 plaintiffs included in lawsuits filed against former MSU doctor Larry Nassar, MSU, USA Gymnastics, and a number of individuals associated with the two groups.
Nassar, who also worked as a doctor for USA Gymnastics, has been convicted of sexually assaulting numerous girls and women and is serving a lengthy prison term.
Lorincz had asked to meet with Engler "with the hope that if he actually met a survivor he might become more empathetic to what we're experiencing."
After telling Engler her story, Lorincz says Engler asked her: 'If I wrote you a check for $250,000 would you take it?"
"I explained that it's not about the money for me and that I just want to help," Lorincz said Friday. Engler responded, she says, with: "Well, give me a number."
Lorincz's statement was met with gasps and boos from those attending the trustees' meeting.
WDIV-TV reports that while Lorincz was giving her statement to the MSU board, she was interrupted several times by Engler, who told her her time was up. That angered the crowd, many of whom began chanting, "Let her speak" while police officers tried to control the situation.
The amount offered to Lorincz was less than 10 percent of the average amount that Penn State University paid to the sexual abuse victims of former Nittany Lions assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, according to Lorincz's attorney.
Lorincz says the encounter with Engler left her feeling like she was "being bullied into saying something."
"I said again, it's not about money," Lorincz says. "Carol Viventi said, 'Well you're in civil litigation, aren't you? That's what a civil case is about, money.'"
MSU is attempting mediation to settle civil lawsuits with Nassar's victims.
