The courtroom drama in Michigan this month, where 156 women told stories of being sexually abused by ex-Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar, serves as a preview to an upcoming trial in Georgia.

“This case is ground zero for the entire USA Gymnastics investigation,” W. Brian Cornwell of Cornwell & Stevens in Savannah told the Daily Report on Friday. “None of this would have happened if it hadn't been for my client and her parents standing up for what's right to protect other kids.”

Cornwell is handling the case with Jeffrey Lasky of Lasky Cooper, also in Savannah. Their client is identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit against USA Gymnastics and one of its former coaches, William McCabe, who is now serving time in a Fort Dix, New Jersey, federal prison for child sexual abuse in another case.

The lawsuit alleges that leaders at the USA Gymnastics Indianapolis headquarters had received complaints about McCabe sexually abusing young girls since 1998 but had done nothing to disqualify him as a coach until he was convicted of such crimes in 2006. Those complaints were part of a file that Cornwell sought in discovery. After a motion hearing and trips to Indianapolis to examine the complaints, Cornwell said he persuaded Effingham County State Court Judge Ronald Thompson to compel USA Gymnastics to produce the documents. But Cornwell filed them under seal, as per a consent order.

The Indianapolis Star hired S. Derek Bauer and Ian Byrnside of Baker & Hostetler in Atlanta to seek to unseal the file. After a hearing, Thompson agreed to unseal the file but stayed his own order while USA Gymnastics appealed. It took nearly a year until the Georgia Supreme Court turned back USA Gymnastics in two different efforts to block Thompson's order unsealing the documents.

Meanwhile, the Indy Star began reporting on the case and complaints about other coaches that allegedly had been kept quiet. After the paper published a series titled “Out of Balance,” a former gymnast emailed to report that she had been sexually assaulted, not by a coach but by Nassar, who was a team doctor for USA Gymnastics, the Olympics and Michigan State University. She had complained and had been ignored, she claimed. Others came forward after that with similar stories, according to the Indy Star's published reports.

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of Ingham County Circuit Court in Michigan sentenced Nassar Wednesday to up to 175 years in prison, combining the time with that from an earlier guilty plea in federal court. But the doctor was never mentioned in the coach complaint files finally unsealed in Georgia last year, as USA Gymnastics redacted names and other information in the files, according to the Indy Star's reports. Still, they showed a pattern of complaints, the reports said.

Now, the stage is set for the trial in Effingham County, scheduled for April 16. Cornwell said he expects it to last a week and that he will put up his case over a period of two days.

According to the lawsuit, Cornwell's client began training at McCabe's gym when she was 8 years old. In 2005, when she was 12, he used a hidden camera to record videos of her undressing in the changing room of his gym, then shared the files from his computer, “making her an object of child pornography,” the suit claims. Cornwell said McCabe shared the images on a website used by pedophiles. The lawsuit also alleges he sent an explicit photograph to her and made sexual demands.

The lawsuit said Cornwell's client suffered and continues to suffer economic and non-economic damages, including psychological counseling needs, emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation and damage to her reputation. It asks for more than $10 million in general damages, plus punitive damages.

Because his client was only 11 when the case came to him, Cornwell said he waited as long as he could to file the lawsuit within Georgia's statute of limitations to allow her to grow and gain the strength to withstand the rigors of a trial.

Defending USA Gymnastics is Michael Athans of Freeman Mathis & Gary in Atlanta. Athans said Friday that he could not comment on the case without permission from his client. Later in the day, he said he had not been able to connect with USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry due to her prior commitments.

Perry took over as president and CEO on Dec. 1, 2017. The organization has now entirely replaced its leadership since the Jane Doe lawsuit began. Perry posted a statement on the website Wednesday saying, in part: “During the last seven days, more than 150 courageous women have shared their deeply personal experiences and how Larry Nassar's despicable crimes impacted their lives. I am profoundly saddened that a single woman, a single girl, a single athlete was hurt. USA Gymnastics applauds Judge Rosemarie Aquilina for handing Nassar the maximum sentence of up to 175 years, in an effort to bring justice to those he abused and punish him for his horrific behavior.”

Perry repeated her promise to “focus each and every day on our organization's highest priority—the safety, health and well-being of our athletes.” She pledged to “create a culture that empowers and supports them. Our commitment is uncompromising, and it is my hope that everything we do going forward makes this very clear.”

Clues to USA Gymnastics' possible defense strategy in the Georgia lawsuit can be found in the brief Athans filed in support of his motion for summary judgment, which the judge denied.

In the brief, USA Gymnastics argued that it has no independent liability to Jane Doe for McCabe's abuse. He was a member of USA Gymnastics, the national governing body authorized by the U.S. Olympic Committee to conduct pre-Olympic gymnastics events. But he was never an employee, and thus USA Gymnastics had no control over him, the brief said. Therefore, the organization is not negligent and cannot be held liable for failure to warn, USAG has argued.

Furthermore, the USA Gymnastics brief said no damages should be awarded because Jane Doe has now grown to be a “well-adjusted young adult” nearing college graduation. The defense hired a forensic pediatrician, who determined that she “is not evidencing any injuries due to McCabe's misconduct.”

Cornwell, Jane Doe's lawyer, answered: “I hope they make that argument in front of the jury.”

The case is Jane Doe v. USA Gymnastics, doing business as Savannah Metro Inc., and William McCabe, No. ST13CV058RT.