Butler official who supervised alleged sexual abuser had ties to Larry Nassar, lawsuit says

Before he began working at Butler University supervising staff that provided athletic treatments to student athletes, Associate Athletic Director Ralph Reiff worked "elbow to elbow" with Larry Nassar, the disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor who sexually assaulted hundreds of women and girls, according to documents filed Friday in a federal court.

Yet, according to amended complaints filed in federal lawsuits by four Butler women's soccer players, Reiff failed to learn from that experience and did not implement protocols to protect the vulnerable athletes from sexual abuse by a former trainer.

The women filed separate lawsuits in federal court in Indianapolis last year, alleging they were groomed, manipulated and sexually assaulted by Michael Howell, the university's former athletic trainer. They accused Howell of conducting hours-long massage sessions that escalated to groping in Butler's training room, offices, buses and Howell's private hotel rooms during road trips. They alleged that Howell surreptitiously took photos and videos of athletes and tried to silence a victim by threatening to reveal potentially damaging information.

The women also accused the university and Reiff of not having policies on the conduct of athletic trainers and of failing to properly supervise Howell.

Butler and Reiff, through their attorney, argued in court filings Friday that their actions were not "the proximate cause" of Howell's misconduct and they could not have reasonably foreseen the alleged abuse.

But, according to the new complaints, Butler's Chief of Public Safety John Conley sent a message to university officials shortly after the women came forward: "I think we could be answering the question, 'did we not learn something from the Sandusky or Olympic doctor cases?'"

While the new complaints don't include any response, they do reveal what the women think.

Sexual assault allegations at Butler: Athletes say trainer's sexual assaults were 'frequent,' over a 'long period of time'

"It is clear that Defendant Reiff ... refused to learn anything from his professional involvement with the most notorious serial sex abuser of female athletes," the complaints say.

In a statement emailed to IndyStar, Butler said: "Ralph Reiff’s work with USA Gymnastics occurred when he was an employee of St. Vincent’s and, as such, St. Vincent’s is in a better position to comment on the relationship between St. Vincent’s and USA Gymnastics. Ralph Reiff’s full and complete testimony ― not a cherry-picked phrase ― makes clear that he did not have a close working relationship with Larry Nassar."

The athletes, identified in court records as Jane Does 1-4, came forward in fall of 2021. University officials notified police, removed Howell from campus and suspended him after learning of the allegations, a Butler spokesperson told IndyStar last year. The university later conducted an investigation into a Title IX complaint against Howell. During that investigation, Reiff and other employees admitted that Butler had no written policies or procedures governing how trainers should work with athletes of the opposite sex, the women alleged.

Attorneys for the women said in court filings that they uncovered Reiff's ties to Nassar after reviewing thousands of pages of discovery, including documents from the Title IX investigation. Reiff acknowledged during his Title IX interview that he worked "elbow to elbow" with Nassar at the Karolyi Ranch, a longtime USA Gymnastics training facility in Huntsville, Texas, where former doctor assaulted several athletes. Reiff also said Nassar was "an expert at hiding things."

IndyStar Investigations: How IndyStar helped uncover Larry Nassar's crimes in USA Gymnastics, MSU

Reiff spent 20 years as executive director of St. Vincent Sports Performance before coming to Butler in 2019. While at St. Vincent, Reiff was a member of the USA Gymnastics Medical Task Force, which was established to develop and oversee medical services and practices by doctors like Nassar to athletes, according to the complaints.

Reiff told Title IX investigators that he also trained and traveled with Jared Fogle, the infamous former Subway spokesman who's in prison for child pornography, and worked with Marvin Sharp, an Indianapolis gymnastics coach who committed suicide while in jail on child pornography charges.

Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Lawsuit: Butler athletic director Ralph Reiff had ties to Larry Nassar