When the grandstanding Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced Larry Nassar for multiple sex crimes in January, she issued a warning: "I just signed your death warrant."
Apparently she didn't consider that Nassar could be sent to Coleman II United States Penitentiary in Sumterville, Florida, near Orlando.
Nassar is currently being held at the Oklahoma Federal Transfer Center, a holdover facility, after he was assaulted within hours of being released into the general population at a prison in Tucson, Arizona.
The 54-year-old doctor is serving three sentences that result in a de facto life sentence, including 60 years in federal prison, and an additional 40 to 175 years in Michigan prison for sex crimes committed against young women in the Michigan State University gymnastics program.
Coleman II has been described as a 'safe' and "special needs prison" and by former prisoner Nate A. Lindell, who said such in an article for Vice and the Marshall Project.
Lindell wrote that Coleman II is a "facility where informants, former cops, ex-gang members, check-ins (prisoners who intentionally put themselves in solitary confinement to be safe), homosexuals, and sex offenders can all, supposedly, walk the Yard freely. At regular BOP lockups, these types of men are in danger of being beaten, stabbed, or strangled to death."
However, Nassar is appealing his sentences in an effort to reduce his time and have the prison terms run concurrently. Judges have denied his appeals in federal and Ingham County courts in recent weeks.
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