State News

Denied justice from Anderson, U-M athletes want assailant's alleged enabler punished

October 28, 2021, 6:33 AM

The man who assaulted them is dead and cannot answer for his crimes. But the victims of Dr. Robert Anderson's serial sexual molestation at the University of Michigan would like to see those who allegedly enabled him, and survive today, punished. 

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Dr. Robert E. Anderson

The Detroit News reports:

A growing number of University of Michigan alumni, students and alleged victims of former Dr. Robert Anderson are calling for the firing of Paul Schmidt, an assistant athletic director and trainer who worked alongside the now-deceased physician accused of molesting hundreds of people, mostly men.

Bobby Powers, a former UM linebacker in the early 1990s, said he recently learned Schmidt still worked for UM and that "infuriated" him. Schmidt sent him to Anderson, Powers said, and he was sexually assaulted dozens of times with what he now knows were unnecessary testicular and prostate exams.

Schmidt joined U-M in 1986 as an assistant trainer. A former player claimed, in a lawsuit filed against the university, that Schmidt allegedly laughed after the player told him that Anderson had groped his genitalia "for an inordinately long time" and said: "Get used to that." 

For years, former players claim, Anderson assaulted the students he was charged with examining, in the guise of medical exams. Schmidt claims no memory of that event, and no knowledge of Anderson's behavior. 

A university spokesman told The News that Schmidt remains employed, and "his status has not changed." 


Read more:  The Detroit News


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