Supreme Court Ruling in Ohio Sex Abuse Case Could Revive Questions About Congressman Jim Jordan’s Role in Scandal

With cases relating to a decades-long sexual abuse scandal at Ohio State University allowed to move forward, questions relating to Congressman Jim Jordan’s alleged complicity in shielding the abuser from accountability could come up once more.The Supreme Court on Tuesday handed down a decision that followed years of litigation dating to 2018 and will allow lawsuits related to sexual abuse by a doctor at Ohio State University, Richard Strauss, from decades ago to go forward.Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005, claimed to have killed himself due to “significant escalating medical and pain problems.” He sexually abused at least 177 students at Ohio State between 1978 and 1998, according to an independent report conducted by the law firm Perkins Cole in 2019 and released by the university.Other reports have put the number of students abused much higher. A 2019 campus safety report from the university said Strauss had abused 1,430 sudents and raped 47 people during his time at the school.In 1978, Strauss was hired as a professor at the university’s school of medicine and, according to the report, began volunteering as a physician for several sports teams shortly after he began work.The independent report said, “University personnel had knowledge of Strauss’ sexually abusive treatment of male student-patients as early as 1979, but that complaints and reports about Strauss’ conduct were not elevated beyond the Athletics Department or Student Health until 1996.”In 1996, after a “very limited investigation” of the history of complaints against Strauss, he was removed from his role in the athletic department but stayed on as a tenured faculty member at the university.Following his removal from the athletic department, Strauss opened an off-campus clinic for students, where he continued to abuse students until his retirement in 1998. Strauss retired with an emeritus title that he held until his death.The report alleges that from “roughly 1979 to 1996, male students complained that Strauss routinely performed excessive — and seemingly medically unnecessary — genital exams.”Examples of abuse detailed in the independent report also include “excessive” touching of the rectal area, inappropriate verbal communications, “invasive physical positioning,” and quid pro quo arrangements where Strauss exchanged doctor’s notes for genital examinations of students.“Despite the persistence, seriousness, and regularity of such complaints, no meaningful action was taken by the University to investigate or address the concerns until January 1996,” the independent report reads.In 2020, the university settled 12 lawsuits brought by 162 victims relating to Strauss’s behavior, paying out $40.9 million. This was roughly half of the lawsuits against the university at the time, with the Columbus Dispatch reporting that some 360 individuals had collectively brought 23 suits by 2020.It is at this point that questions surrounding Mr. Jordan’s complicity in the abuse arise. Mr. Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at the university between 1986 and 1994.In 2018, two wrestlers at Ohio State during Mr. Jordan’s time there, Mike DiSabato and Dunyasha Yetts, came forward alleging that Mr. Jordan knew about the abuse despite his repeated denials.“I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” Mr. DiSabato told NBC News at the time. “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.”At least seven former wrestlers — Tito Vazquez, Dan Ritchie, Mike Flusche, Mr. Yetts, Shawn Dailey, Mr. DiSabato, and Mike Glane — have alleged that Mr. Jordan was aware of the abuse by Strauss but refused to do anything about it. “Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State,” Mr. Jordan’s office said in a 2018 statement.At a 2020 hearing on an Ohio bill that would allow Struass’s victims to sue the university, Mr. DiSabato’s brother, Adam DiSabato, testified that Mr. Jordan pressured him to publicly refute his brother’s allegations.“Jim Jordan called me crying, groveling … begging me to go against my brother,” Mr. DiSabato said at a hearing, according to Cleveland.com. “That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on there.”At the time, Mr. Jordan’s communication’s director, Ian Fury, dismissed the testimony as “another lie” in a statement to Newsweek, adding, “Congressman Jordan never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had he would have dealt with it.”The cases potentially implicating Mr. Jordan, though, have not been resolved because Judge Michael Watson of the Southern District of Ohio ruled that the statute of limitations had passed.Since then, the cases relating to Strauss’s abuse and the coverup have been mired in appeals. Until Tuesday, when the Supreme Court allowed them to proceed.In Judge Watson’s ruling, he wrote that there was no question whether the victims had “suffered unspeakable sexual abuse” by Strauss and that officials at the school knew about the abuse and refused to take action. The judge ruled that restitution should be sought through the state legislature rather than the courts.As cases related to Strauss’s abuse and the coverup move forward, it’s likely that questions surrounding what Mr. Jordan knew about the abuse and when he knew it will once take the spotlight.Mr. Jordan’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Supreme Court Ruling in Ohio Sex Abuse Case Could Revive Questions About Congressman Jim Jordan’s Role in Scandal

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