This undated file photo shows a photo of Dr. Richard Strauss, an Ohio State University team doctor employed by the school from 1978 until his 1998 retirement. Strauss accused of groping young men decades ago also had an off-campus men’s clinic, which was marketed in the campus newspaper with ads promising prompt treatment of genital problems, plus a student discount
The Ohio State University team doctor accused of groping scores of young men decades ago also had an off-campus men’s clinic that was marketed in the campus newspaper with a series of ads promising prompt treatment of genital problems, plus a student discount, according to two former employees.
The ads published in the fall of 1996 labeled it as a ‘Men’s Clinics of America’ and didn’t mention the now-deceased physician, Richard Strauss, but the connection was confirmed by two former nursing students who say they did appointment-booking and other clerical work for Strauss. One of the former students said he was touched inappropriately by Strauss during an exam at the clinic, and he wonders if others were abused there.
The ex-employees describe a bare-bones clinic set up in an office building roughly a mile from campus: Strauss was the only doctor, contrary to the ads. He conducted some exams with no one else present and without wearing gloves. Information on the medical charts was minimal. Ohio State athletes occasionally dropped by for exams. All patients were directed from a waiting area to an exam room that had very little medical equipment, and then to a different exit so they wouldn’t see anyone else afterward, the ex-employees said. One recalls using a cash box to hold payments.
An ad for an off-campus clinic operated by former Ohio State Dr. Richard Strauss, who’s accused of groping young men, appeared in the November 1, 1996 edition of The Lantern
It seemed then to be a real but oddly run part-time business, and it was understandable that patients with potentially embarrassing problems might appreciate privacy and discretion, but the allegations recently raised against Strauss cast it all in a much more suspicious light, the ex-employees said.
‘It wasn’t like any doctor’s office I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in a lot,’ said Brian Garrett, who said he briefly worked for Strauss but quit immediately after both witnessing and experiencing sexual abuse by the doctor during exams at the clinic one day. Garrett said he was embarrassed and repressed what happened, keeping it to himself until this year.
The second ex-employee, a former nursing student who works in health care, said Strauss sometimes mentioned that an athlete would be visiting the office at night and told the employee to head home.
That worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he doesn’t want to be associated with Strauss, said he wasn’t abused by Strauss and never witnessed misconduct or heard or saw any signs of distress from patients during the few months he worked there, starting in late 1996.
Strauss’ behavior at his private medical office is now part of the ongoing investigation by an outside law firm that also is examining allegations involving the student health center and Ohio State male athletes from at least 16 sports, including some plaintiffs in three related lawsuits against the school.
In this July 3, 2018, file photo, Brian Garrett speaks during an interview at his home in Powell, Ohio. Garrett, is among about 145 former students who have reported firsthand accounts of sexual misconduct by Ohio State University team doctor Richard Strauss
An independent investigation into Dr. Richard Strauss is ongoing at Ohio State
Garrett is among the 145 former students who have given the investigators firsthand accounts of alleged sexual misconduct by Strauss between 1979 and 1997.
Strauss killed himself in 2005. His relatives have said they were shocked by the allegations.
The school has urged anyone with information about him to contact the investigators from Seattle-based Perkins Coie, which isn’t proactively contacting possible victims because of concern for potentially re-traumatizing them.
Some of Strauss’ accusers claim Ohio State officials didn’t properly respond to concerns raised throughout his two decades there. The university has said that is a key part of the investigation and the school is committed to uncovering the truth.
It documented at least one complaint before Strauss retired from the university in 1998. A student health center director said a student’s report about being inappropriately touched by Strauss during an exam in 1995 was the first such complaint he’d received.
That was a year before Strauss launched his off-campus clinic, which was open for less than two years.
An independent investigation is ongoing at Ohio State, which says it’s committed to learning the truth.
The allegations that people at Ohio State didn’t respond appropriately at the time ‘are troubling and are a critical focus of the current investigation,’ university spokesman Benjamin Johnson said in a statement in July.
A total of three lawsuits seek unspecified monetary damages, but unlike the first two, the newest case, filed in July, doesn’t propose to represent all Ohio State students mistreated by Strauss.
That lawsuit describes the other plaintiffs – most of whom aren’t named – as members of the tennis, soccer, basketball and track and field teams during the 1980s who repeatedly experienced sexual misconduct by Strauss. In some cases, it says they complained to their coaches or trainers about his behavior.
Some former wrestlers have said the same thing and directed their most vocal criticism at Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1987 to 1995. The Ohio congressman, who on Thursday launched a long-shot bid to become the next House speaker, denies wrestlers’ claims that he knew about abuse when he was coaching.
Former athletes are claiming that the Ohio recreation center, where a team doctor allegedly assaulted dozens of men, was a ‘gauntlet of sexual deviancy’. Rep Jim Jordan (pictured), a former wrestling coach at the university, claims he knew nothing about it