Report: U-M could have stopped Anderson sexual assaults on athletes

University of Michigan administrators knew about Robert Anderson's sexual assaults on athletes and students since the start of his tenure at the school in the 1970s, but did not act, causing decades of pain, a new report found.

"A senior University administrator was told about Dr. Anderson’s misconduct several times between 1978 or 1979 and 1981 but did not take appropriate action," the law firm WilmerHale wrote in a lengthy investigative report commissioned by the university and released Tuesday. "Concerning information was also shared with other University personnel. Although the information these individuals received varied in directness and specificity, Dr. Anderson’s misconduct may have been detected earlier and brought to an end if they had considered, understood, investigated, or elevated what they heard."

According to the report, legendary football coach Bo Schembechler was told about Anderson's misconduct.

Several football players notified Schembechler about Anderson's behavior, the report says. A member of the football team in the late 1970s told police he asked the coach “soon” after an exam, “What’s up with the finger in the butt treatment by Dr. Anderson?”

Schembechler told the player to "toughen up" according to the report, which does not provide any more detail about the incident or what police did with the information. 

Several U-M employees told WilmerHale Schembechler did not know about Anderson's misconduct.

"Multiple University personnel who worked with Mr. Schembechler told us that had he been aware of Dr. Anderson’s misconduct with patients, he would not have tolerated it," the report says. 

WilmerHale collected information from 800 people, with 300 taking part in interviews.

"The trauma that Dr. Anderson’s misconduct caused persists to this day. The experiences that many of Dr. Anderson’s patients relayed to us were widely consistent, containing similar details and key elements," the firm's report said. "We have no doubt based on the evidence available to us, including the first-hand accounts of his patients, that Dr. Anderson engaged in a pervasive, decades-long, destructive pattern of sexual misconduct."

The U-M board issued a short statement with the release: "Today, we received WilmerHale’s 240-page report at the same time it was released publicly. The report is available on the U-M Board of Regents website. We will thoughtfully and diligently review and assess the report’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations; and we will work to regain the trust of survivors and to assure that we foster a safe environment for our students, our employees, and our community."

Lawyers for the victims who have sued issued statements condemning the lack of action by U-M.

"The WilmerHale report confirms that over the course of four decades Robert Anderson sexually harassed, abused, and assaulted hundreds of students, athletes, and members of the public," said attorney Parker Stinar, who represents more than 170 Anderson survivors. "More shocking is the WilmerHale report confirms that the University of Michigan knew about Anderson’s sexual abuse conduct for decades and failed to take any appropriate measures to protect their students, athletes, and individuals against a sexual predator they had known about for 40 years."

The report detailed multiple times high-ranking U-M administrators were told by students about Anderson's sexual assaults.

"In 1975, Mr. (Tad) DeLuca complained in writing to his wrestling coach, Bill Johannesen, that '[s]omething is wrong with Dr. Anderson. Regardless of what you were there for, he asks that you ‘drop your drawers’ and cough.” There is no evidence that Mr. Johannesen looked into Mr. DeLuca’s complaint about Dr. Anderson.

A couple of years later, "Jim Toy, the Gay Male Advocate in the University’s Human Sexuality Office, told Thomas Easthope, who was then the Assistant Vice President of Student Services with oversight responsibility for (the University Health Services), that Dr. Anderson was 'fooling around with boys' at UHS. Around the same time, two psychological counselors in the University’s Counseling Services Office reported concerns about Dr. Anderson’s conduct with patients to Mr. Easthope," the report said. 

Easthope talked to WilmerHale and confirmed he had heard the allegations.

"Mr. Easthope claimed to have confronted Dr. Anderson and fired him. But Mr. Easthope did not do so. Contemporaneous documentation reflects that Dr. Anderson voluntarily resigned as UHS Director effective January 1980, but he continued working at UHS as a senior physician with the title of Director of Athletic Medicine. Despite having heard about Dr. Anderson’s misconduct, Mr. Easthope himself signed documentation related to Dr. Anderson’s continued employment at UHS in January 1980 and approved a salary increase for him in or around August 1980."

Easthope got more reports about Anderson in late 1980 and early 1981, the report said. 

"Despite the credible reports of misconduct that Mr. Easthope received, the University never terminated Dr. Anderson’s employment or moved him to a role in which he would no longer see patients. Instead, in July 1981, Dr. Anderson transferred to the Athletic Department, for which Mr. Easthope had no oversight responsibility. Dr. Anderson continued to work at the University, including in the Athletic Department and in various capacities at Michigan Medicine, until his retirement in 2003. He continued to provide medical services to student athletes and other patients."

Easthope died in February.

This is the second time in a year the law firm has issued a report about a prominent U-M official accused of sexual misconduct. In July 2020, it found Martin Philbert, the second-highest administrator at the University of Michigan, had a lengthy history of sexually harassing female employees and had sexual relationships, including in university offices, while being promoted time and time again.

Anderson, who worked at U-M from 1968-2003 and died in 2008, has had hundreds of accusations lodged against him for sexual assault and misconduct. There are hundreds of lawsuits filed against the university by his victims, which included athletes and other students. 

Anderson's sexual assaults were so well known among Michigan athletes, accusers have said, that he earned nicknames — "Dr. Drop Your Drawers" and "Dr. Glove." Anderson was known to give unnecessary rectal and testicular exams to students. He also allegedly traded sexual favors for letters to Vietnam-era draft boards establishing men as homosexual and thus making them eligible for a draft deferment.

More:Archive papers show doctor’s ties to Bo Schembechler’s Michigan football program

More:U-M investigating former football team doctor for sexual misconduct

In a May 2020 court filing, the university said it was coming to grips with the "sad reality that some of its students suffered sexual abuse at the hands of one of its former employees" and is "determined to acknowledge and reckon with that past and, to the extent possible, provide justice — including in the form of monetary relief — to Anderson’s survivors."

In December, U-M's board hired an outside firm, Guidepost Solutions, to help guide its response to sexual assault complaints and help overhaul a culture many said led to the improper handling of accusations against high-profile employees.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj. Subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.