COLUMBUS, OHIO –
More than 100 alumni have provided first-hand accounts of sexual misconduct by the team physician. Ohio State University currently dead at the center of an ongoing investigation, the university said Friday.
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More than 200 alumni and university employees have been interviewed confidentially by independent investigators who review allegations against Richard Strauss that involve male athletes from 14 sports, as well as their work in the student health center and his medical office outside the university. President Michael Drake said.
ARCHIVE – This undated file photo shows a picture of Dr. Richard Strauss. More than 100 alumni have provided first-hand accounts of sexual misconduct by Strauss, the doctor of the Ohio State University team currently dead, at the center of an ongoing investigation, the university said Friday, July 20, 2018 (Ohio State University via AP, Archive)
These allegations go from 1979 to 1997, during most of Strauss' two decades in faculty and medical staff. Many of the accusers who have spoken publicly claim that Strauss fumbled for them or that they performed unnecessary genital exams.
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" We are grateful to those who have come forward and remain deeply concerned about anyone who may have been affected by the actions of Dr. Strauss, "said Drake. "We remain firmly committed to discovering the truth."
Ohio State has urged anyone with information to contact the attorneys at the Perkins Coie law firm, who investigate the allegations, what the university officials knew, and how they responded to any concerns about Strauss. They are also reviewing whether Strauss examined high school students.
The university announced the investigation in April after accusations were filed about Strauss this year.
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The school said that investigators are accepting anonymous reports and pointed out that they are not arriving proactively to possible victims because they want to avoid re-traumatizing anyone who does not want to revisit that experience.
The university said the researchers plan 100 or more additional interviews. Those who say they have been interviewed include wrestlers who claim to have been groped during physical exams and a former student who claims to have witnessed and experienced sexual abuse in one day while working in the medical office off of Strauss' campus in the mid-1990s.
US Republican Rep. Jim Jordan was also interviewed, who denies the claims of some fighters that he knew about abuses when he was assistant coach in the state of Ohio from 1987 to 1995.
The coach at the time, Russ Hellickson, similarly said that he would have reported any abuse if he had been aware.
Former athletes say they expressed verbal concerns about Strauss as early as the late 1970s.
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His employment records published by the university made no reference to any reprimand or disciplinary action on such concerns, but Ohio State has a record of at least one documented complaint against Strauss. Paperwork from 1995 shows that a then director of the student health center said that a student's complaint about being inappropriately touched by Strauss during an examination was the first complaint he received.
The documentation that ex-student Steve Snyder-Hill, obtained from the state of Ohio this week, shows that he complained about Strauss by phone, not by letter, as he had remembered, and received a response from the director, Ted Grace. Snyder-Hill said he was told Strauss denied his allegations.
"I want to assure you that we have never received a complaint about Dr. Strauss before, although we have had several positive comments," said Grace's letter. .
Grace now leads student health services at Southern Illinois University. She refused to comment through a spokeswoman there.
Strauss committed suicide in 2005. His relatives have said they were shocked by accusations of sexual abuse against him.
The Strauss staff file in the state of Ohio indicates that previously, he researched, taught or practiced medicine at Harvard University, Rutgers University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Washington and the University of Hawaii. Most of those institutions say they have little record of Strauss, and none have said that concerns have been raised about him.
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