Fundraiser for Victim’s Father Who Lunged at Larry Nassar Raises More than $30,000

A GoFundMe page for a sexual abuse victim’s father who in court Friday lunged at disgraced U.S. Olympics Gymnastics Dr. Larry Nassar, received more than $31,000 in donations in 24 hours.

The “Show support for Randall Margraves” page raised $31,481 in one day from 921 donors and stopped accepting donations Saturday morning. The original goal of the campaign was to raise $1,000.

Co-worker Aaron Pangborn, who set up the page for Randall Margraves, said he created it “to help a brother and a friend in need.”

Margraves attempted to attack Nassar at his sentencing hearing Friday after he asked the judge for “five minutes in a locked room” with the convicted sexual abuser.

“I would ask you as part of this sentencing grant me five minutes in a locked room with this demon,” Margraves asked the judge at the sentencing hearing.

The judge denied his request, prompting Margraves to follow up with a request to spend just one minute in a locked room with Nassar.

When the judge denied Margraves’ second request, Margraves ran towards the disgraced doctor before Nassar’s attorney stopped him and bailiffs wrestled Margraves to the ground and arrested him.

Many donors to the fundraiser supported Margraves’ attempted attack, saying they would do the same if they were in his position.

“As the father of 2 girls, the video made me cry….that you were stopped before you reached him. I would do the same. God Bless you and your family,” Robert Wykoski wrote.

“From one Union Family Man to Another. Proud of you Brother, Too bad you didn’t get a few licks in,” Cory Mara wrote on the page.

Margraves faced a contempt of court charge, but the judge decided to release him and not charge him with any penalties once he apologized for acting out in front of the court.

Pangborn posted an update on the fundraiser hours later, saying he created the fundraiser to cover legal fees resulting from Margraves’ arrest.

When news broke that Margraves was not charged, Pangborn said he would work with his co-worker to ensure the money goes to support victims of sexual abuse.