DALLAS — Texas prosecutors Friday filed sexual assault charges against Larry Nassar and a trainer who worked at his side, expanding the worst abuse scandal in U.S. sports history beyond Michigan while also clearing world-renowned gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, whose ranch served as a training site for Olympians.

Nassar, a former sports doctor, was charged with sexually assaulting six minors in Walker County, home of the Karolyi ranch, about 70 miles north of Houston.

A grand jury also indicted former sports medicine trainer Debra Van Horn on one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child, making her the first person other than Nassar to be charged in direct connection with the assaults. She had worked at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics for 30 years.

Walker County District Attorney David Weeks said Van Horn was charged as “acting as a party” with Nassar. He didn’t elaborate. Efforts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful, and the name of her lawyer wasn’t immediately known.

In Michigan, Nassar was sentenced earlier this year to decades in prison, after hundreds of women and girls accused him of molesting them with his hands under the guise of medical treatment. They said the abuse went as far back as the 1990s while he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.

A victim, Mattie Larson, told a judge in January that Van Horn “would be in the room many of the times Larry abused me. If a trainer, a professional trainer, doesn’t say anything about it, I should trust her. At least that’s what I thought.”

The Karolyis have denied wrongdoing . They couldn’t be reached for comment Friday; a call to the number listed for Bela Karolyi wasn’t answered.

“The Karolyis were and remain fully cooperative with this investigation. There is no corroborated evidence of any criminal conduct” by the couple, said Stephanie Stroud, a Walker County prosecutor.


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