Michigan State once again finds itself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, as reporting from the Lansing State Journal shows that a member of the school’s football athletic training staff stands accused of attempted sexual assault, domestic violence and lying to a police officer.
David Jager has been on paid administrative leave since March 2018, according to a university spokesperson. Though the spokesperson did not comment on the reason for the leave, court documents show that Jager was accused of assaulting his girlfriend at Spartan Stadium in August 2015, then lying about it to police. Both of those charges are misdemeanors, but Jager also faces a third charge of attempted sexual assault on a woman in February 2016 — a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Jager, an MSU athletic trainer since 2013 who has also done work with the men's and women's tennis teams, was named in a December report by the Michigan Attorney General as one of 11 people who failed to report knowledge of former team doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse before the allegations came to light.
Though the charges against Jager aren’t related to Nassar, the report describes a “culture of indifference and institutional protection” that ultimately contributed to Nassar’s abuse of hundreds of women and girls.
The report says that Jager’s girlfriend told him that she had been groped by Nassar, and that Jager dismissed the allegation, saying that Nassar was “the best in the world.”
Jager is due in District Court for a pretrial conference later this month. He’s currently out of jail on a $2,500 bond.
