UM reaches $490 million settlement with Anderson accusers

Jan. 19—The University of Michigan has agreed to a $490 million settlement with those who claimed they were sexually abused by the late university sports doctor Robert Anderson, three sources with direct knowledge of the agreement told The Detroit News.

About 1,050 mostly men will share in the settlement, ending one of the nation's biggest sex abuse scandals that began in the late 1960s and stretched over decades until it publicly emerged two years ago. The settlement is expected to be formally announced later Wednesday.

It means that each accuser will get an average of more than $438,000. The exact amount, however, for each individual will vary depending on circumstances. The average is roughly half of the settlement reached between Michigan State University and the women who were sexually assaulted by the now-incarcerated Larry Nassar.

In that historic 2018 settlement, more than 500 women divided $500 million. The exact amount for each was confidential and also varied. But the first wave of women, 333, split $425 million, for an average of $1.27 million each.

The $490 million settlement over Anderson also sets aside a $30 million reserve for future accusers.

Anderson served UM from 1966-2003 as head of University Health Service and the team physician for the UM Athletic Department. He died in 2008.

More than a decade later, Robert Julian Stone approached UM and told school officials that Anderson sexually molested him during medical treatment while he was an undergraduate nearly 50 years earlier and coming out as a gay man. When he learned that UM police were investigating claims made by other men, he feared the university would bury the case so he shared his story in February 2020 with The Detroit News.

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His story set off a firestorm, with others claiming that they also were subjected to Anderson's abuse, which ranged from fondling to forced masturbation to rape.

After Stone's accusation became public, UM's first police investigation emerged, showing that the university police department had been investigating Anderson for 16 months and a top university official, the late Thomas Easthope, became aware of Anderson in 1979, but the doctor was able to stay employed at the university.

The allegations led to the first lawsuit, filed in March 2020 by former Attorney General Mike Cox on behalf of a former UM wrestler who claimed Anderson abused him on at least 35 occasions in the 1980s.

The claims grew to include other former student-athletes, pilots, medical students, gay men and a few women.

The settlement comes four days after the UM Board of Regents fired formed President Mark Schlissel for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.

kkozlowski@detroitnews.com

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