Prosecutors representing plaintiffs in the cases related to sexual abuse by former Ohio State University doctor Richard Strauss said the university is trying “sidestep liability” in a new jointly filed a brief regarding which OSU officials had authority to stop Strauss’ abuse.
Attorneys representing plaintiffs in the three largest lawsuits against Ohio State filed a joint brief in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on the evening of May 4. The filing included hundreds of pages of documents, including deposition transcripts from at least six former university athletics department employees, human resources materials and internal communications regarding Strauss.
Fourteen of the 41 exhibits were filed under seal, including the deposition of former Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee.
According to the brief, although many Ohio State employees knew that Strauss was abusing students as early as 1979, the university alleges that only a few people were considered “appropriate persons” with authority to take corrective action.
“Throughout Strauss’s tenure, that knowledge was not unique to one person, but to dozens of OSU employees – ranging from multiple administrators in the athletics department, sports medicine directors, student health directors, and many high-level administrators – that, at any time, could have acted upon this knowledge and stopped Strauss’s abuse,” attorneys with Public Justice, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, and Scott Elliot Smith, LPA, said in a statement.
Plaintiff’s attorneys allege that Ohio State is “trying to narrow the scope” of who it believes had the authority to stop Struauss.
“In doing so, they are attempting to rewrite their own history,” the statement read. “A history that includes its own commissioned investigation that determined University personnel knew and failed to take action, the University publicly apologizing for those failures, and its own past president Michael Drake admitting that ‘many people over many years failed to meet a standard that we would hold’ to take corrective action.”
“The University does not get to revise its past or sidestep liability.”
Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson said the university does not comment on pending litigation.
“Since 2018, Ohio State has sincerely and persistently tried to reconcile with survivors through monetary and non-monetary means, including settlements, counseling services and other medical treatment,” Johnson said in a statement. “As of April 15, we have settled with 317 survivors for more than $61 million, and we remain actively engaged in mediation.”
The remaining Strauss survivors involved in the legal cases against Ohio State are scheduled to go to trial later this year.
Strauss was hired by Ohio State in September 1978 as an assistant professor in the College of Medicine. Investigators found that university officials began receiving complaints and had knowledge of Strauss’ misconduct within months of his hiring.
Strauss’ abuse went on for years and ranged from subtle acts under the pretext of medical purpose to more overt actions, survivors said. He fondled patients’ genitals and conducted genital or rectal exams even when they weren’t medically necessary, survivors said.
Perkins Coie conducted an independent external investigation after Strauss’ abuses became public. Ohio State released that report in May 2019, which found that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 students throughout his 20-year tenure as an athletics and student health doctor at the school.
The report also found that dozens of Ohio State employees were aware of Strauss’ sexual abuse toward students.
Geiger, Griffin said they were unaware of Strauss abuse
Three depositions made public in the filing were interviews with former Ohio State Athletic Directors Andy Geiger and Rick Bay, as well as former Associate Athletic Director Archie Griffin.
Geiger, who served as athletic director from 1994 to 2005, testified that he heard “rumors” about Strauss’ abuse but didn’t recall knowing about investigations into his conduct.
According to the Perkins Coie report, Geiger said he was told about an investigation about Strauss in 1996. Geiger testified that he hadn’t read the report until the morning of his deposition.
Geiger testified he could not dispute that students suffered real and lasting harm because of Strauss’ actions.
Rick Bay, Ohio State’s athletic director from 1984 to 1987, testified that he only learned about Strauss’ sexual abuse after reading it in a newspaper. Bay said he did not recall any complaints made to him by coaches or student athletes about problems regarding Strauss, though he said he would’ve reported them had he known.
During Bay’s deposition, attorneys read portions of a previous deposition with Russ Hellickson, a former Ohio State wrestling coach.
According to the excerpt, Hellickson testified that he told Bay, Geiger and Griffin about “undesirable activities” at Larkins Hall, the athletics facility where Strauss operated. Those issues including voyeurism, masturbation and having sex in the bathrooms.
Bay described those activities as “deviant behavior” but denied ever being told about them.
Griffin, who held multiple positions in Ohio State’s athletics department after his NFL career, denied ever learning about Strauss’ actions.
“I’m not shocked because… everybody doesn’t hear everything about everyone,” Griffin said.
Ohio State doctor said he didn’t know to report sexual abuse
Dr. John Lombardo, former Ohio State medical director and head team physician who supervised Strauss for a time, testified that he learned in early 1990s that Strauss was showering with athletes in communal showers at Larkins Hall. Lombardo’s predecessor, Bob Murphy, told him that student athletes were “uncomfortable” with Strauss and to handle the situation.
Lombardo testified that he had a single conversation with Strauss, during which he told the doctor that he couldn’t keep showering with students and that he wouldn’t be allowed to keep caring for student athletes if he continued.
According to the Perkins Coie report, “conduct outside of a medical examination context – such as showering and otherwise fraternizing with the OSU student-athletes for whom he was a team physician” is considered sexual abuse given Strauss’ doctor-patient relationship with students.
Lombardo said he didn’t know that he should’ve reported allegations of abuse to law enforcement or that law enforcement were trained to investigate such claims.
“That wasn’t something they discussed in the 1990s,” Lombardo said.
Helen Nino, a former university attorney, testified that she warned Lombardo and then-Vice President for Student Affairs David Williams to “get rid” of Strauss.
Nino received three student complaints about Strauss, one of which came from athletics, evidence “that to me was enough” to “get rid of him,” she testified.
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Geiger, Griffin depositions reveal response to OSU Strauss allegations
Reporting by Sheridan Hendrix, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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