The clarification comes after the Eaton County prosecuting attorney's office said a Michigan Supreme Court ruling had forced the removal of Nassar's name from the registry. On 9 September, the state's highest court ruled that the Sex Offender Registration Act (Sora) cannot be applied retroactively to cases involving offenses committed before the law's relevant date. In response, Michigan state police removed more than 20,000 people whose offenses occurred before 1 July 2011 from the agency's online sex offender database.
But state police confirmed that Nassar was not among those removed. He was not in the system because he is incarcerated in a federal prison in another state, serving a sentence related to his conviction for sexually abusing gymnasts. The Eaton County prosecutor's office had earlier claimed the court ruling necessitated taking Nassar's name off the list, a statement now contradicted by state police.
The Michigan Supreme Court's September decision has led to a large-scale removal of entries from the registry, affecting thousands of individuals. The ruling does not erase underlying convictions, but it means those offenders are no longer listed in the publicly accessible online database. The Nassar case has drawn particular attention given the scope of his crimes and the public interest in monitoring convicted sex offenders.