People in the gallery were crying as police took Margraves' father into custody. #Nassar
— Clayton Cummins (@ClaytonCummins) February 2, 2018
Angela Povilaitis, the lead prosecutor in the case, pleaded for calm.
"You cannot behave like this," Angela Povilaitis tells the people in the gallery after Randall Margraves lunges forward at #Nassar. "This is him having power over us." #NassarSentencing
— Clayton Cummins (@ClaytonCummins) February 2, 2018
Judge Janice Cunningham apologized to the courtroom for the incident.
“What happened in the courtroom was scary,” she said, per Cummins. “What Mr. Nassar did is horrible, but please let the criminal justice system do what it is supposed to do.”
About three hours after the incident, Margraves was led back into the courtroom in handcuffs (Nassar was not present). Cunningham told him that he could have been penalized for contempt of court but said she decided against it after consulting with the Eaton County prosecutor, the sheriff’s office, Nassar’s attorney and Margraves’s attorney, Mick Grewal, who told the judge that Margraves didn’t know what his daughters were going to say Friday and was overwhelmed with emotion.
Matt Mencarini of the Lansing State Journal was on the scene.
Cunningham said despite the understandable sense of anger, it's not acceptable to combat assault with assault.
— Matt Mencarini (@MattMencarini) February 2, 2018
Cunningham said she won't issue a punishment due to the nature of this case.
— Matt Mencarini (@MattMencarini) February 2, 2018
"I lost control," Margraves said. "I apologize 100 times." He said he's embarrassed and didn't mean to upstage his daughters. He came here to support them.
— Matt Mencarini (@MattMencarini) February 2, 2018
After his apology, Cunningham released Margraves. However, Grewal told Mencarini that the country sheriff’s office is still conducting a criminal investigation that could be referred to prosecutors, though he hopes it doesn’t come to that.
Margraves is the father of Lauren and Madison Margraves, who testified Friday before their father’s action. He also is the father of another woman who spoke out against Nassar in neighboring Ingham County last month.
Madison mentions her fellow survivors in tears, "you showed me that there is a power and there is a voice, I will be forever grateful for that." #Nassar pic.twitter.com/c1Vr2QAEh6
— Clayton Cummins (@ClaytonCummins) February 2, 2018
Friday’s sentencing hearing in Eaton County, Mich., was the third for Nassar and is scheduled to continue into next week as victims speak out. Last week, an Ingham County Circuit Court judge sentenced him to 40 to 175 years in prison on seven sexual assault charges after a days-long parade of victims testified against him. In December, a federal judge sentenced Nassar to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges.
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