Ex-Wrestler Sues Michigan over Alleged Abuse by Former Doctor Robert Anderson

An anonymous plaintiff, who was a wrestler at the University of Michigan from 1984 to 1989, reportedly filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday that said the Big Ten school ignored multiple warnings regarding sexual abuse by former team doctor Robert Anderson. 

Dan Murphy of ESPN reported the wrestler said in the lawsuit Anderson first sexually abuse him as a 17-year-old freshman and "continued to molest and grope him on a regular basis." 

Mike Cox, who is the wrestler's attorney, said they filed the lawsuit after a meeting between the school and 10 former Michigan athletes "went nowhere" and left them feeling "betrayed."

The lawsuit is seeking compensation and "other declaratory, equitable, and/or injunctive relief, including, but not limited to implementation of institutional reform and measures of accountability to ensure the safety and protection of young athletes and other individuals."

"Their coaches would all joke around about Dr. A," Cox said. "Everyone knew about it."

This comes after the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com) reported Tuesday that attorney Parker Stinar said two former Wolverines football players and a former hockey player who reached the NHL are among the more than 40 people his firm is representing in the sexual abuse case.

In February, the University of Michigan announced it opened a hotline for former patients to call and hired the law firm Steptoe and Johnson to perform an independent review of the allegations.

The announcement also noted the school opened a police investigation in July 2018 after a former student-athlete detailed Anderson's sexual abuse in a letter to athletic director Warde Manuel.

According to Murphy, more than 100 people have reached out to the school regarding Anderson in just the last two weeks. The former doctor, who died in 2008, worked at Michigan from 1968 through 2003 and treated athletes on both the football and wrestling teams.