The former president of Michigan State University was arraigned Monday on felony and misdemeanor charges surrounding her involvement with the school’s handling of serial sexual predator, Larry Nassar. Attorneys for Lou Anna K. Simon say pleaded not guilty, and plans to fight the charges. Officials say Simon lied to or mislead law enforcement officers about her knowledge of details about a Title IX investigation by the school into Nassar.

Nassar is the former Michigan State University sports doctor who sexually assaulted his patients for decades, many of them young girls. Nassar is currently serving a de facto life sentence in prison.

Simon was president of Michigan State from 2005 until January of 2018. She stepped down amidst mounting criticism over how the university handled Nassar.

After the proceedings, Simon was sent to the county jail to be fingerprinted. Her attorney, Lee Silver said, “Dr. Simon is about as far from a criminal as anybody that I could think of and it’s ridiculous that she is being treated like a common criminal.”

Simon faces two felonies and two misdemeanor charges. The felonies each carry a maximum penalty of up to four years in prison and/or $5,000 in fines. The misdemeanors carry up to two years in prison each and/or fines.

For years, Simon has said she didn’t know about any reports against Nassar until 2016, the year the IndyStar published an investigation into USA Gymnastics’s handling of sexual abuse complaints, and Rachael Denhollander, one of the first survivors to publicly come forward against Nassar, filed a complaint with Michigan State University Police accusing Nassar of sexual assault when she was a teenager.

The charges Simon faces stem from a 2014 internal investigation into Nassar after Amanda Thomashow reported Nassar for sexual misconduct to the Michigan State Sports Medicine Clinic director.

According to court documents, Simon met with law enforcement officials in May during their ongoing investigation into who knew what and when at Michigan State about Nassar. Simon told investigators that she was aware there was a “sports medicine doc” who was the subject of a review in 2014, but she didn’t know the doctor or what the complaint was about until 2016.

Officials say they have written documents to show that Simon knew Nassar was the subject of a sexual assault complaint.

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Lou Anna Simon, former president of Michigan State University, testifies during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing in June.

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When asked about the evidence mentioned in court documents, Simon’s attorney Mayer Morganroth said, “Look we’re not going to get into the evidence because the evidence is false, ridiculous and would even be stupid for any of you to even consider it. You’ll find out.”

The former Michigan State University president is the third person charged during the state Attorney General’s Office’s investigation into the university’s handling of Nassar. Former dean of osteopathic medicine, and Nassar’s former boss, William Strampel is awaiting trial on various charges for failing to properly oversee Nassar and using his position as a dean to try and get sexual favors from students.

A former Michigan State coach also faces a criminal trial for allegedly lying to law enforcement. Two women testified during a court proceeding in September that when they were teens they told Kathie Klages that Nassar digitally penetrated them during treatment. But Klages told law enforcement – while it was conducting an investigation – that she didn’t recall those conversations.

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Dozens of people have been hospitalized after a charter bus transporting members of the University of Washington marching band rolled on a Washington interstate Thursday, according to Washington State Patrol.

Trooper John Bryant said “40-45 plus” people were transported to hospitals but that none of the injuries were serious. He said there were 56 people total on the bus.

“The injuries reported were cuts, complaints of general pain and back pain, but the injuries are not believed to be critical,” UW spokesperson Victor Balta said in a statement. “The University is doing everything it can to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff, and to get them back on their journey to Pullman.”

The Husky Marching Band was headed to Eastern Washington to perform at Friday’s Apple Cup football game between Washington and Washington State.

According to Bryant, the bus rolled at about 5:30 p.m. local time and was one of six carrying UW band members.

It wasn’t immediately clear why the bus rolled over, though Bryant warned incoming media members to drive carefully because the road was icy. He shared photos from the scene of the overturned bus, with the bumper partially ripped off and misshapen front window frames.

Bryant initially said 20 to 25 band members were transported to hospitals, but raised that number about two hours later.

The band members who were uninjured regrouped at an elementary school in the small town of George, Wash., where they received a warm welcome from the local community. One member of the band group said in a post on Twitter, “families left their thanksgiving dinners to bring us leftovers and hot food.”

The people in George rallying to help the band even included fans of their rivals from Washington State University, according to a tweet from UW Cheer.

The band has not officially said whether they plan to perform at the Friday evening game. But if they do, the opposing WSU Marching Band is asking their own fans to give the band a warm welcome.

“If the wonderful @huskyband is able to come down tomorrow after tonight’s accident, DO NOT boo those kids,” WSU Marching Band said in a tweet. “Applaud their efforts and sacrifice to be here supporting their team and university.”

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Former President of Michigan State University Lou Anna Simon was charged with two felony and two misdemeanor counts on Tuesday for allegedly lying to police during their investigation into how the school handled sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, the doctor convicted of abusing scores of young women while employed by the university and USA Gymnastics.

According to the warrant, Simon purposefully concealed that she knew that the university’s Title IX office and police department had launched an investigation into a sexual assault complaint filed against Nassar in 2014, ESPN reported.

Nassar was eventually cleared of wrongdoing by the school but when asked by investigators about the case, Simon allegedly told police that she did not know the name of the sports medicine doctor involved.

“In fact she knew it was Larry Nassar who was the subject,” investigators said according to ESPN.

Nassar pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal child pornography charges and 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct in Michigan state courts.

Simon, who has denied any criminal wrongdoing, could face up to four years in prison, according to the Associated Press. The 71-year-old is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in Eaton County, Mich.

“The only crime committed is the criminal complaint,” Simon’s lawyer, Mayer Morganroth told The New York Times. “It is political and completely false and the responsible party will pay for it. Shame on them.”

Simon, resigned as university president under mounting pressure in January — the same day Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing more than 150 patients. “As Nassar’s legal journey to prison was drawing to a close, more and more negative attention was focused on Michigan State University, and on me,” Simon wrote in her resignation letter.

“As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable. As president, it is only natural that I am the focus of this anger,” she added.

Despite stepping down she remained a member of the faculty as a “distinguished professor” and continued draw the $750,000 annual salary she had earned while at the helm of Michigan State. But following the charges, university spokeswoman Emily Guerrant told the AP Simon is taking an immediate unpaid leave of absence “to focus on her legal situation.”

Simon is the latest campus official to be criminally charged in the wake of Nassar’s convictions for molesting young female athletes over several decades, from at least 1992 until 2014. As the AP reported:

“In August, Schuette charged former MSU gymnastics head coach Kathie Klages with lying to an investigator when she denied that witnesses told her years ago about being sexually assaulted by Nassar. In March, the ex-dean of the osteopathic medicine school, William Strampel, was charged with neglecting his duty to enforce examining-room restrictions imposed on Nassar after the 2014 Title IX investigation.”

The fallout of Nassar’s crimes and the subsequent alleged attempts of cover ups or willful denials of abuse extend beyond Michigan State; USA Gymnastics officials have also been accused of “ignoring reports of Nassar’s extensive sexual abuse and actively working to hide it.”

Steve Penny, the former president of USA Gymnastics was arrested in October over allegations that he tampered with evidence related to a Nassar investigation. And earlier this month the U.S. Olympic Committee began the process of revoking USA Gymnastics’ status as the governing body for the sport.

In May the university agreed to pay $500 million to settle claims by hundreds of Nassar’s victims.

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In California’s Yosemite National Park, the summit of the iconic El Capitan rock formation looms 3,000 feet above its base. Though El Capitan’s vertical granite has always presented a challenge for climbers, its southeastern face, known as the Dawn Wall, is thought to be the most punishing.

And yet, for several days in January 2015, national media crews and a growing crowd of people stood at the base of the rock, craning their necks as they watched free climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson slowly make their way up the Dawn Wall. Free climbers can use ropes to catch them from falls, but not to help them climb.

Jorgeson and Caldwell spent years planning their 19-day climb. “You could compare it to choreographing a gymnastics routine or a dance,” Jorgeson says of the preparation. “It’s highly precise.”

Part of the planning involved figuring out where in the rock’s seemingly impenetrable surface they might find a small grip on which to rest a toe, plant a finger or anchor a portaledge-style tent.

“These little tiny razorblade edges sometimes form [in the rock], and if you train yourself properly, you can learn to support your body weight,” Caldwell explains. “Then, if you practice it enough, you can learn to move from one edge to the next.”

Caldwell and Jorgeson’s historic climb is captured in a new documentary The Dawn Wall.

Interview Highlights

On free climbing the Dawn Wall

Caldwell: El Capitan itself had been climbed a lot. Historically, it was climbed by aid, where you sort of attach these ladders to the wall and you climb the ladders. Free climbers got a hold of it in the early ’70s, and so we started climbing it [with] just our hands and feet and the ropes were there to catch us. And there [were] about 12 routes on El Cap that had been free climbed, but they followed these distinct crack systems. To the right of center, though, was this big, vast, blank looking face, and to me that was the next level. It looked impossible.

On supporting themselves with just their fingers

Jorgeson: Climbing on El Capitan is extremely technical. You have to imagine that it’s as sheer and as vertical as the side of a skyscraper. But what’s cool about vertical climbing is that it’s very balance oriented. So if you have a nub big enough to stand on your feet, it often doesn’t take a whole lot to grip onto for your hands in order to make it all work. It’s this really delicate dance at times. Other times, it’s really powerful and physical, but sometimes it’s just really precarious balancing act moves. … Picture a thimble or just your thumb sticking out from the wall — just a little tiny surface area.

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Tommy Caldwell uses “tiny razorblade edges” in the rock wall to support his body weight on El Capitan’s Dawn Wall.

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On how they secure the ropes while free climbing

Caldwell: A 200-foot rope is what we use. And as the first person climbs, they put in protection into into cracks. If there’s no cracks, occasionally there’s little holes drilled that have these bolts in them. And so, every 8 to 20 feet, you clip into one of these protection points. And so if you can envision that, if you’re climbing above a protection point, say you’re 10 feet above it, and you fall — you’re going to fall 20 feet, plus a rope stretch. Then your belayer is holding the other end of the rope. That’s your climbing partner.

So the first person goes up putting in these pieces of protection. They stop. They belay. And the second person follows them up. And then you repeat that process over and over again until you get to the top.

On portaledges, the tents that secure to the side of a wall

Caldwell: It’s our little nest up on the wall. It’s a hanging cot. It has a metal frame that’s strung with fabric in between and it hangs from straps in a single clip-in point, and then a tent goes all around it. It’s your little pod, and on El Capitan specifically, you end up spending a tremendous amount of time in these portaledges, it becomes your home. It’s where you cook. It’s where you sleep. It’s where you eat. It’s where you go to the bathroom. Anytime you’re not climbing, you’re in these portaledges.

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Jorgeson checks to see how much skin has grown back after a night of rest in his portaledge.

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Corey Rich/Red Bull Media House

On the dangers they faced as free climbers

Caldwell: On the Dawn Wall specifically I think our main danger was ice fall. We needed to climb in the middle of the winter for the conditions [to be right]. … So we climbed in the middle of the winter, which meant every morning when the sun would hit … ice chunks would come flying down the wall. So you have to figure out ways to deal with that kind of stuff.

Complacency was a big one, since we were up there for 19 days, just overlooking being tied in properly. If you’re a new climber, in some ways, you’re safer, because you’re aware of everything, you don’t get complacent. But when you’ve been doing it as so long like we have … one of the dangers is you just get too comfortable in that environment.

On seeing Yosemite from 2,500 feet up

Jorgeson: It’s one of my favorite aspects of climbing is that it gives you these unique perspectives on the world that hardly anyone else gets to experience. So being up on El Cap, I mean, you get a perspective of Half Dome, you could look out to the west, you get to see Yosemite Valley through a really unique lens.

Roberta Shorrock and Mooj Zadie produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.

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