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A Michigan judge who held an extraordinary hearing before sentencing sports doctor Larry Nassar to jail for sexual assault on female athletes refused to exclude him from the case on Friday if higher courts sent him back for correct any errors. (August 3)
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The former doctor of the University of Michigan and Gymnastics of the United States, Larry Nassar, was dishonored in court.(Photo: Matthew Dae Smith, Lansing State Journal, Mich.)

Pat Perles, the son of former Michigan state football coach and current board member George Pearls, claims that his father's claims to help cover a Larry Nassar rape in 1992 are " a manufacture ".

A federal lawsuit filed by former MSU athlete Erika Davis alleges that Nassar raped her in the spring of 1992 when she was a member of the women's field hockey team and a student at the College of Osteopathic Medicine. school. Nassar is currently serving a 60-year federal prison sentence on child pornography convictions. He was also sentenced to decades in prison for sexually assaulting nine girls, including one abused outside of a medical setting.

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The lawsuit states that Davis spoke of the assault to his head coach, Martha Ludwig, and that it was videotaped. He also says that Ludwig got a copy of the recording, but that Pearls was involved and took possession of the tape. Ludwig was forced to resign and sign a confidentiality agreement, according to the lawsuit.

Pat Perles told Sports Illustrated that his father had a "remarkably good" memory for a man of 84 years.

"He does not remember anything because it never happened," said Pat Perles. "There was no meeting with the field hockey coach, which certainly did not include this topic – it's a fabrication."

George Pearls, former head coach of the MSU, and his wife Sally, speak at a press conference regarding a fundraiser on September 23, 2017. (Photo: Robert Killips | Lansing State Journal)

The Lansing State Journal reports that MSU hires an outside lawyer to help George Pearls handle the allegations stemming from the lawsuit.

Pat Pearls said Davis's timeline in the lawsuit makes no sense and "creates holes … big enough to allow a truck to pass."

George Perles, who was head coach of MSU from 1982 to 1994, became a sports director in 1990. He resigned from his position in spring 1992.

The lawsuit alleges that Davis, then 17, became pregnant as a result of the rape and then miscarried. The complaint also states that in October of the same year, Davis went to the MSU campus police to file a report, but was told that because she was an athlete she had to report to the sports department.

"The plaintiff Erika explained that the sports department had already dismissed him and that the sergeant replied that George Perles was a" powerful man "and that he should simply drop him," says the lawsuit.

When Perles left the position of general manager, Merrily Dean Baker was appointed sports director of MSU.

Baker said on Tuesday that she had no knowledge of a reported rape and that she would have been informed if it had occurred shortly before taking office.

Matt Mencarini and RJ Wolcott, journalists at the Lansing State Journal, contributed to this report.