10/02/2026
We must correct our earlier social media post about removal of convicted s*x offenders from the Michigan S*x Offender Registry. After reporting from the Detroit News, it appears that Larry Nassar was never actually registered under the Michigan S*x Offender Registry. We never contemplated that one of the most notorious s*x offenders in the history of the state would not have been registered despite the law requiring otherwise. In our experience, when a s*x offender is sentenced to a term of incarceration, they are listed in the Michigan S*x Offender Registry as being “incarcerated” and complaint. That status does not change until the offender is released from custody, at which time the entity incarcerating the individual ensures the registry is updated.
Larry Nassar was sentenced in Eaton County on February 5, 2018. Public court records for the matter indicate that the three offenses that he was convicted of here had an offense date of 9/30/2009. His Ingham County sentence occurred on January 24, 2018, and shows offense dates in 1998. Those offense dates fall within the time frame which the recent Supreme Court Order removed from registration requirements. At the time of both sentencings, MCL 28.723(1) required individuals who are “domiciled or temporarily reside in this state” to register under the act. MCL 28.724(5) required registration on the Michigan S*x Offender Registry to occur PRIOR to sentencing and that the Court “shall not impose sentence…until it determines that the individual’s registration was forwarded to the department…”
Prior to his arrest Nassar was a resident of the state of Michigan and at the time of his plea in Eaton County, Nassar was incarcerated in the Newaygo County Jail under federal detention. Media reports from around the state reported that Nassar was not housed with the Bureau of Prisons until after his sentencing here, when he was transferred from the custody of the Eaton County Sheriff to federal authorities and taken to the Milan Correctional Facility in Milan, Michigan. Hence, by all accounts Nassar was domiciled or temporarily residing in the state of Michigan, making him subject to registration under MCL 28.723.
Based on a full review of publicly available materials, the plain reading of the law, and our own experiences with the registration process for s*x offenders in Michigan, the absence of Nassar from the Michigan S*x Offender Registry five days ago suggested that he had been removed from the Michigan S*x Offender Registry. Again, in our experience, incarcerated registrants remain in an incarcerated status throughout their term of incarceration, so despite his incarceration in a federal correction institution, our expectation was that he would still appear on the registry as ‘incarcerated’ pending an entity updating his registration. Now, based on a statement the Michigan State Police issued today, it appears that Nassar was not removed from the registry recently, rather he was never registered in the first place. While that conclusion raises other questions, at the end of the day, our post had less to do with Nassar, and more to do with the 20,000 others removed from the registry. The removal of individuals from the registry occurred quickly and without notice to local prosecutors about who MSP believed were eligible to be removed.
As prosecutors, we have a responsibility to provide information to victims and survivors of s*xual assault. These victims and the People of Eaton County deserved to know that the one-page order of the Supreme Court existed and that there were people in the community, including those who s*xually assaulted them, who were no longer on the public registry. We also have an obligation to be forthcoming with our citizens, and so we acknowledge that we have found that we were incorrect when we stated that Nassar was recently removed from the Michigan S*x Offender Registry by People v Smith. We apologize for the confusion caused by the post.
