“He was a friend, confidant and beloved doctor. Now he is accused of sexually abusing athletes for years “, The Athletic

At Farmington and other schools, Levran led players through yoga sessions, which culminated with a lengthy Savasana, when players would lay in corpse pose in a darkened room to relax and reflect. One player for Farmington who graduated in 2010 remembers Levran lightly brushing his entire body — the sides of his arms, his chest, and even his penis — during this portion of class.

“Sometimes I remember thinking to myself when his hands were moving everywhere — was it an accident?” the player said.

As the years passed, Levran became an increasingly influential figure within the Detroit-area hockey scene. His feedback was solicited for all-star team selections in the Michigan Development Hockey League, according to emails between the coaching staff and Levran. He was invited to banquets, included on team excursions and welcomed onto the ice at championship celebrations. When Livonia Stevenson won the state championship in 2013, Levran was offered a championship ring.

The medical services he provided hockey players and others also expanded as the years went on. Multiple coaches saw or consulted Levran for their own medical issues. Several players, all now in their 30s, said they saw him for medical issues years after they stopped playing.

Scott Massa, a former goaltender for Stevenson High, said that in February 2011 his coach told him to leave school early and visit Levran at his medical office in Livonia to see if Levran would clear him to play. (Massa had earlier suffered a concussion.) Levran did some standard concussion protocol tests, Massa said, but then Levran also touched Massa’s genitals in a way that Massa described as “fondling.” Massa said Levran also made an inappropriate remark about the size of his penis, similar to the jokes Levran sometimes made in the team’s locker room.

Massa walked out of the appointment confused. But he was also happy Levran cleared him to play earlier than had been expected.

When asked why he thought his coach had sent him to Levran, Massa, who has spoken to police, responded: “Because that was the person he knew could get me in. … We didn’t have anyone else who could help on short notice. Doc was readily accessible.”

The earliest alleged incident of sexual abuse identified by The Athletic dates to 2003.

Twin brothers went to see Levran for physical exams needed before they could play middle school sports. They were 13 and their family knew Levran because an older brother had played youth hockey with Levran’s son. Levran was able to get them in quickly for back-to-back appointments, a great convenience for a family shuttling four total kids to various sports practices.

At the appointment at Levran’s medical office in Livonia, the first brother said that Levran instructed him to lay down on the physician’s table and take off his pants. From there, Levran began feeling his testicles. Then, Levran lifted the head of the boy’s penis and began massaging the shaft of his penis with his thumb, prompting him to become erect. Levran next asked him to stand up to perform a hernia check, and Levran continued to touch the sides of his penis during that examination.

“I remember at some point thinking if I show him I’m nervous, he’ll stop,” the first brother said.

Levran eventually instructed the boy to put his clothes back on and then ended the appointment, acting as if nothing unusual had happened.

The second brother remembers Levran pinching his penis and touching him in a way that he became erect. He left the office feeling terrified that someone would find out what happened.

“I felt like I was being forced … to participate in a sexual act I wasn’t consenting to,” he said. “I felt like this was going to be found out and that everyone would find out.”

The two brothers eventually talked and discovered they had similar experiences with Levran. For years afterward, both feared going to a doctor for a physical. When their older brother sent them a news article about Levran’s arrest, they called the tip line set up by police. They subsequently recounted their experiences to federal authorities, who are assisting with out-of-state interviews.

The most recent alleged incident occurred Oct. 18.

A 19-year-old hockey player went to Levran’s home to be treated for a lower-body injury. Levran led him to his basement office, where there were pictures of various hockey teams Levran had worked with, a physician’s table covered in white paper and a leopard print rug.

According to police documents, Levran asked the player about his sexual history, including questions about the last time he had sex, when he had last ejaculated and questions about his ex-girlfriend. Levran asked the player to remove his clothing, down to his underwear, after which Levran performed a physical examination, including a hernia check, and asked him to do a number of yoga-like stretching exercises, which lasted for approximately 40 minutes

Next, according to the police report, the player was “told to take off his underwear, which he questioned the reasons why. The (sic) Dr. Levran repeated the request. As he was taking off his underwear, the doctor turned off all of the lights except for one, then asked the victim if he was ready for a relaxation massage.”

The player told the police he was reluctant but thought this was part of the exam. From there, according to what the player described to police, Levran sexually assaulted him.

“The victim said he was in shock, and just wanted to leave. He said he never consented to anything that happened, nor did he ask for any of it. He thought he was only there to have his (injury) examined and leave,” according to police records.

Following the incident, the player said Levran instructed him not to tell his father what happened. Later that day, Levran texted the player and reminded him to “do what he recommended,” according to police records, which the player interpreted as a reminder to stay silent.

In one text exchange between Levran and the player’s father before the appointment, which was cited in the police report, Levran asked the father if his son was coming to the appointment alone. Levran told the father that the appointment could take a long time, and that the father was better off not waiting with his son. When the father said that the player would be coming alone, Levran responded:

“Perfect.”

Scrolling through Instagram on Jan. 2, 2023, Greg Wirick saw an ad from a law firm looking for any former patients of Dr. Zvi Levran.

“The second I saw it, I knew exactly what it was about,” Wirick said. “I just knew in my gut.”

Wirick met Levran in 2007 when he was a junior goaltender at Livonia Churchill High. At that time, Levran mainly worked with Farmington’s team, but he also ran yoga sessions for the Churchill players on off days. During his high school career, Wirick said he and his teammates revered Levran: “He was a wizard, like a medicine man of some sort,” always ready with a natural remedy for any ache, bruise or ailment. And Levran’s yoga sessions proved to be a good team-building activity. “We just had such a great group of guys and he was really a part of the process that galvanized us and made us so close.”

In September 2021, 13 years after he graduated from high school, Wirick reached out to Levran for medical advice for some residual pain he was experiencing from a kidney stone issue. Levran advised him to come to the clinic he ran out of his basement.

During that visit to Levran’s home office, Wirick said Levran instructed him to get naked. Wirick said Levran followed him into the bathroom and said he needed to watch him urinate to inspect his stream. He asked Wirick how “big” he got when his penis was erect. Without warning, Levran digitally penetrated Wirick’s rectum, seemingly to perform a prostate exam, but Wirick said Levran also asked him if he wanted to know the location of the male g-spot.

Wirick was bothered by the interaction but chalked it up to Levran being eccentric. “I just tried to look past it, like Doc’s a f—— weirdo — what are you gonna do?” Wirick said.

Levran then advised Wirick to make an appointment at his medical office in West Bloomfield Township for an exam and an ultrasound, which took place on Sept. 30, 2021, according to Wirick’s insurance records. Nothing about the visit was unusual, Wirick said.

Within a week of that visit, Wirick was back at Levran’s home. They drank wine while Levran went over the lab results and ultrasound findings. Wirick opened up to Levran about some health issues he was trying to manage, including panic attacks he had been dealing with since his father’s death years earlier. Levran said that if Wirick wanted him to be his primary care physician he could fill Wirick’s prescriptions for Xanax and that he could call him or text him anytime. Levran is listed as the prescribing physician on a bottle of Xanax that Wirick showed The Athletic.

“I was like, well that’s awesome. That’s way better than having to schedule an appointment and sit in a waiting room. I could just hit up doc. You know? Doc’s the man,” Wirick recalled. Three other players told The Athletic that Levran made similar offers to be their primary care physician.

During that conversation at Levran’s home, Wirick asked Levran about restarting his yoga practice to get into a better headspace. Levran told Wirick that he was hosting small group yoga sessions out of his home, with the only caveat being that they were performed naked. Wirick thought that was bizarre, but he tried to be open-minded.

“I had no reason to doubt the guy,” Wirick said, adding: “I’d been around sports teams and naked dudes my whole life, so whatever.”

When he arrived at Levran’s Farmington Hills house for the first yoga session, no one else was there. Levran and Wirick both stripped down — Levran said the point of the nudity was to shed all barriers and to cultivate a sense of “openness,” Wirick said — and Levran put him through a number of physically challenging poses, ending with corpse pose. Levran then gave him a post-yoga massage. Though the yoga session was unconventional, Wirick didn’t feel like anything improper occurred.

But in the next three sessions Wirick attended, Levran’s approach during the post-yoga massages changed. He began focusing his massaging on Wirick’s groin area, opining about the importance of the seven Chakras. Wirick said there were times he’d become involuntarily erect, and Levran assured him that it was normal and not to be embarrassed — it was all about relaxation.

The second to last time, Wirick said that Levran touched Wirick’s penis. “I was uncomfortable but kind of just stuck in the moment like ‘F—, this is weird but I’m in his basement naked and his wife is upstairs and what do I do now?’” Wirick said. Levran asked Wirick if he wanted to ejaculate and Wirick said he responded: “Doc, that’s not really what I’m here for, man.” Levran backed off and apologized.

Wirick went back once more, in December 2021, believing Levran would respect the boundaries he thought he had set at the previous visit. But following the corpse pose portion of the yoga session, Levran began massaging Levran’s groin again and put his mouth on Wirick’s penis. Wirick sat up and asked him what he was doing. “He said he just wanted me to relax and that he wanted to pleasure me,” Wirick said.

Wirick dressed quickly and left. Once home, he told his girlfriend (now his fiancée) what had happened. His fiancée told The Athletic that Wirick was “clearly uncomfortable” with what had happened and angry in the aftermath.

Levran texted Wirick numerous times after that last visit, wondering when Wirick would see him again. Wirick made excuses for why he could not. Levran persisted, telling Wirick he was worried about him and asking if he was angry with him. Wirick responded that he was uncomfortable with the sexual nature of the sessions. (The Athletic reviewed this text exchange and others between the two.)

Levran told Wirick via text that Wirick’s “situation is very delicate and the yoga sessions that we had serve a huge purpose to prevent any acute episodes.” He added:  “You need to call me when you can find time for your own health,” and signed the message “Doc,” and with heart and praying hands emojis.

Wirick, now 33, is not among the victims who have spoken to law enforcement. He said that given the number of cases filed against Levran, he assumed police didn’t need more victim statements.

According to a public records request with Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, two complaints were filed against Levran — one in September 2020, another in December 2020 — over concerns that he was performing pelvic exams out of a basement office in his home. According to physicians consulted on the matter, that is highly unusual.

It is also a practice that has been widely questioned since the Larry Nassar scandal. A number of the victims in that case detailed abuse that happened in the basement of Nassar’s home.

There was also a complaint filed in 2009 for “negligence-incompetence” relating to an incident two years earlier when Levran performed penile surgery on a 12-year-old boy and inadvertently removed one of his testicles, according to the complaint detail and activity report. That mistake was “unheard of,” according to Dr. George Steinhardt, a pediatric urologist in Michigan who was consulted in the investigation of this complaint. In the case file of that investigation, obtained by The Athletic, Steinhardt stated that the loss of a testis during penile operation “is both unprecedented and staggering.” In his summary, Steinhardt advised that Levran “should not participate in the care of children.”

But in early 2012, the state’s Board of Medicine Disciplinary Subcommittee dismissed the complaint against Levran. According to the document detailing the board’s decision, board physician Dr. Richard E. Burney found that Levran did not violate public health code. In a summary of the decision, the board notes that Burney found the penile anomaly to have been corrected and stated that the parents “were pleased with the surgery.”

Steinhardt, in an interview with The Athletic, said he was baffled by the board’s decision. “I was thinking there would be some mechanisms to limit (Levran’s) ability to practice,” he said.

Instead, even as the investigation into the botched surgery was ongoing, Levran packed up and moved to Fergus Falls, Minn., landing in the town about 200 miles northwest of Minneapolis in 2011. He told acquaintances in Michigan he was eager to serve as the only urologist in Otter Tail County. According to Hockey Weekly, there were three send-off events held for “Doc”; one of them was reportedly attended by 150 people, 90 of them former players.

“Even though I will visit Michigan often and attend some games, my focus will have to shift now to high school hockey in Minnesota,” Levran said at the time.

It is unclear whether Lake Region Medical Group in Fergus Falls was aware of the investigation into the botched surgery when Levran was hired as a urologist. (A spokesperson for the group said that LRMG does not comment on personnel matters but a valid Minnesota license is a prerequisite for hiring). Levran soon began working as a volunteer team physician for the Fergus Falls High boys hockey team and, just as he had in Michigan, he also offered yoga instruction to players.

As first reported in November by The Athletic, Levran allegedly assaulted two players in Fergus Falls in 2017, groping their genitals when they went to see him for shoulder injuries. One 16-year-old player’s disclosure to a teammate was overheard by an athletic trainer employed by Lake Region Medical Group, who reported the conversation to his superior.

What was done with that information is unclear. A Lake Regional Medical Group spokesperson said that local authorities were consulted and that “the appropriate action was taken.” The Fergus Falls school district acknowledged receiving two complaints regarding Levran — one on Nov. 30, 2017, and one on Dec. 6, 2017. Current superintendent Jeff Drake, who was not in that role at the time these allegations surfaced, said that Fergus Falls Police Department and Lake Region Medical Group were both “consulted” and that Levran “was notified in writing that he would no longer have access to the district’s hockey program (or to yoga classes held off-site) on December 13, 2017.”

Fergus Falls police chief Kile Bergren confirmed that a consultation with the school district occurred, though he said he was unable to produce records to detail that call. Typically, mandatory reporters (such as school officials and healthcare workers) who suspect abuse of a minor are obligated to report the suspected abuse to either law enforcement or county health services via standard intake forms. When those forms are received, the receiving agency is required to cross-report to the other agency. Bergren said the phone consultation was all that occurred.

As for what police did upon learning that Levran had allegedly sexually assaulted a minor, Bergren, who has previously officiated hockey and coached at the youth level, said there were “efforts made in the community to reach out to other victims” but acknowledged there were no law enforcement records documenting those efforts. Why was a formal investigation not launched? Bergren said the school district informed police that one of the victim’s parents drafted a letter threatening litigation should they pursue the matter further.

The Athletic asked Drake to produce that letter, allowing for redactions to conceal the identity of the victim and to adhere to state privacy laws. Drake hasn’t responded to that request.

The handling of the allegations in Fergus Falls is “shocking and abhorrent,” said Livonia-based attorney Mike Cox, who is representing at least two of Levran’s alleged victims. “It seems clear to me that the school district dropped the ball in a big way.” Cox also described the Fergus Falls police response as “lackadaisical.”

Levran left Minnesota in June 2017 and returned to Michigan, picking up essentially where he left off years earlier: working with teams and treating athletes. No one from Fergus Falls appears to have alerted schools in Michigan or the medical board there or in Minnesota about the allegations against Levran. Ten of the 12 incidents for which Levran has now been charged with a crime occurred after he returned to Michigan in 2017.

Farmington Hills police have met with some of the investigators involved in the Nassar case, seeking guidance. “The fear is, we don’t want to be a department that misses something,” Piggott said. He added: “You see what happened with Nassar and how that progressed over years and all these things putting together. We should be learning from that.”

Some of the people who have contacted police are still piecing together what happened, at the beginning of “having those difficult conversations,” King said. Others are further along, processing the harm done to them or to those they care about.

“I was his patient. We talked as friends. We called each other on our birthdays every year. He operated on me three years ago,” said the father of the twins who said they were assaulted by Levran in 2003. “He came to my house for my kids’ graduation party knowing he had violated (them).”

Zimmerman, the coach who praised Levran in that 2007 profile, is now encouraging anyone with information about Levran to contact police. Mary Sheltrown, a former athletics coordinator and physical education teacher with Farmington Public Schools, attended Levran’s yoga sessions with the players on multiple occasions. “I have gone over and over trying to think if there was something that stood out or that I should have picked up on,” she said.

Massa, the player who went to Levran in 2011 after a concussion, said: “I hate the word ‘victim.’ I never thought I’d have to say that about myself.” He added: “I pride myself on not being a hateful person but it’s hard to forgive him right now — for anything.”

Wirick remembers how Levran was always available for a phone call, including once when Wirick was suffering a late-night panic attack. He also thinks back to those Friday night skates. How much the players enjoyed those evenings, the camaraderie they felt. Levran was in the middle of it all.

“Does this guy actually care about us and he’s just sick in the head? Or is he just totally sadistic with this?” Wirick asked. “That bothers me — not knowing.”

Katie Strang is a senior enterprise and investigative writer for The Athletic, specializing in covering the intersection of sports and social issues, with a focus on sexual abuse and gendered violence. She previously worked at ESPN.