DiSabato’s allegations against Jordan's cousin, Matthew Finkes, are included in a Title IX lawsuit, reviewed by NBC News, filed Wednesday against the university by attorneys Michael Wright and Dennis Mulvihill on behalf of DiSabato and 36 unnamed former OSU wrestlers, football players and other athletes.
Jim Jordan again disputes allegations he knew Ohio State wrestlers were sexually abused (videos)". Cleveland.com. Retrieved November 24, 2019. ^ a b Siemaszko, Corky (August 9, 2018). "Former OSU wrestler who accused Rep. Jim Jordan of ignoring abuse changes story".
While Jordan is not named in this lawsuit, Yetts told NBC News he expects the powerful Republican congressman, as well as former head coach Russ Hellickson, will be identified in filings to come but will not be named as a defendants.
WASHINGTON — In a sign that Representative Jim Jordan is unlikely to shake a sexual misconduct scandal anytime soon, five former wrestlers sued Ohio State University this week, accusing university officials of knowing that a team doctor was abusing student athletes and doing nothing to stop him.
The allegations against Jordan stem from his time as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State. Former wrestlers have come forward with claims that he turned a blind eye to sexual abuse by then doctor Richard Strauss.
Adam DiSabato, who was a member of the school's wrestling program in the late '80s to early '90s, is the brother of fellow OSU wrestling alumni Michael DiSabato, who helped spur the investigation into the late Dr. Richard Strauss.
Strauss was employed by Ohio State from 1978 to 1998. He died by suicide in 2005. In the wake of those revelations, dozens of students sued the school and the athletic department for their handling of the case, The Dispatch previously reported.
A former Ohio State wrestler accused Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) of repeatedly “crying” and “begging” him not to corroborate accounts of sexual abuse against the university's wrestling team doctor that occurred when Jordan was a coach.
Raised in Champaign County, Ohio, Jordan graduated in 1982 from Graham High School where he was a four-time state wrestling champion with a career record of 150-1. He went on to wrestle for the University of Wisconsin from 1982 - 1986. During that time he was a three-time All-American and a two-time NCAA champion.
After his retirement in 1998, Strauss moved to an apartment in Venice Beach, California, just steps from the Pacific Ocean. Strauss killed himself at that residence in August 2005.
"Strauss was a university employed physician from 1978 to 1998. He died in 2005. Ohio State is a fundamentally different university today and over the past 20 years, has committed substantial resources to prevent and address sexual misconduct.
Jordan earned a master's degree in education from Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor from the Capital University Law School. In a 2018 interview, Jordan said he never took the bar examination.
Polly JordanJim Jordan / Spouse
Schyck graduated with the 4th-most wins in the history of OSU's wrestling program. He's a plaintiff in a lawsuit related to team physician Richard Strauss, who sexually abused at least 350 male athletes, including 47 allegations of rape, across at least 15 sports between 1978 and 1998.
58 years (February 17, 1964)Jim Jordan / Age
Troy, OHJim Jordan / Place of birthTroy is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Ohio, United States, located 19 miles north of Dayton. The population was 25,058 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in Miami County and the 61st largest city in Ohio; it is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. Wikipedia
The Jordan family has produced several successful collegiate wrestlers. Bo's uncle Jim Jordan was a two-time NCAA champion for Wisconsin and is currently serving as a U.S. Congressman. His cousin Isaac won the Big Ten title last year on top of earning his second All-American honors for Wisconsin.
Getty House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Jim Jordan has been an extremely vocal supporter of Donald Trump, even during impeachment hearings. In his home state, the politician’s past was examined as reports concerning his own decisions were brought into question. The allegations against Jordan stem from his time as an assistant ...
He claimed in the lawsuit that Strauss masturbated in front of him. The referee, known as John Doe in the lawsuit, went on to detail and exchange about the incident to Jordan. “Yeah, that’s Strauss,” the plaintiff stated that the Ohio representative said at the time. The referee spoke to NBC News about his claims.
For his part, the representative from Ohio vehemently denies having any part in the sexual abuse coverup.
Jordan has vehemently denied allegations that he ignored sexual misconduct, and so far he has maintained the backing of his party’s heavyweights, including President Trump, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, and Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican whip.
One of the lawsuits specifically mentions Mr. Jordan, Republican of Ohio, who served as the wrestling team’s assistant coach in the late 1980s and early 1990s, citing news reports that wrestlers had informed him of the abuse. Lawyers pursuing both cases say they expect to call the influential conservative as a witness.
Strauss’s conduct is at the heart of a university investigation spanning 14 different sports teams and more than 150 athletes. More Ohio State alumni — both former athletes and students — have come forward in recent days to say Mr. Strauss had abused them, Mr. Estey said, either as team doctor or at the university’s student health center.
WASHINGTON — In a sign that Representative Jim Jordan is unlikely to shake a sexual misconduct scandal anytime soon, five former wrestlers sued Ohio State University this week, accusing university officials of knowing that a team doctor was abusing student athletes and doing nothing to stop him.
Wrestler who says Rep. Jim Jordan did nothing about abusive team doctor part of new lawsuit against Ohio State. Dunyasha Yetts said he was outraged when Jordan claimed in May he was vindicated by the Perkins Coie probe. Dunyasha Yetts is one of the most outspoken former wrestlers from Ohio State University. Jared Wickerham / The New York Times via ...
By Corky Siemaszko. A former Ohio State University wrestler who publicly claimed that his then assistant coach, Rep. Jim Jordan, knew the team doctor molested him but failed to act has sued the school for unspecified damages. Dunyasha Yetts, who is named in the complaint ...
The Perkins Coie law firm, that was picked to conduct the independent investigation, also concluded the Ohio State coaches and other top school administrators knew for two decades what Strauss was doing but failed to sound the alarm or stop him. They said the athletes and their coaches were also ignored when they complained to higher-ups about strangers ogling them in the showers at their training center in Larkins Hall.
When asked for comment on the lawsuit, Ohio State referred NBC News to president Michael Drake ’s apology on behalf of the university to the victims after the Perkins Coie report was released.
While Jordan is not named in this lawsuit, Yetts told NBC News he expects the powerful Republican congressman, as well as former head coach Russ Hellickson, will be identified in filings to come but will not be named as a defendants.
When NBC News first reported in July 2018 that Jordan was accused of failing to stop Strauss from molesting the student athletes, Fury denied the allegations, saying “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.”.
The former Ohio State students all claim that Strauss groped them repeatedly under the guise of giving physicals and “would rarely wear any type of latex gloves,” according to the complaint.
Vazquez is one of six former OSU wrestlers who told CNN in recent interviews that they were present when Jordan heard or responded to sexual misconduct complaints about team doctor Richard Strauss. Eight others say Strauss' inappropriate behavior was an open secret in the athletic department and that Jordan, among others, must have known about it.
Former OSU wrestler Adam DiSabato told Ohio state legislators in February that Jordan called him in 2018 and asked him to contradict statements by his brother, who had publicly alleged Jordan knew about Strauss' abuse when he worked for the university.
In January 1993, Yetts said, he went to Strauss after he injured his thumb in practice. During the examination, the doctor tried to remove his wrestling shorts.
Among the lawsuits filed against OSU over the Strauss allegations was one brought by Yetts and other former wrestlers who allege university personnel "added, abetted, and/or concealed Dr. Strauss' sexual predation.". That suit was not among the group of settlements that OSU announced on Friday.
One former wrestler, Dan Ritchie, said he remembers a teammate complained about Strauss and that Jordan said, "If he ever tried that with me I'd snap his neck like a stick of dry balsa wood.". A contemporary photo of Jordan as OSU assistant wrestling coach. Ritchie said Strauss' behavior was an ongoing, uncomfortable joke among athletes.
When allegations about what Jordan knew regarding Strauss first surfaced two years ago, the Ohio lawmaker actively disputed the accusations.
Among the lawsuits filed against OSU over the Strauss allegations was one brought by Yetts and other former wrestlers who allege university personnel "added, abetted, and/or concealed Dr. Strauss' sexual predation." That suit was not among the group of settlements that OSU announced on Friday.
The Strauss scandal became a national story last July when DiSabato and several other former wrestlers accused Jordan, a powerful Republican congressman, and other staff members of ignoring what Strauss was doing. Jordan coached at OSU from 1986 to 1994.
Mike DiSabato says Jordan's cousin Matthew Finkes posted his social security number online and called him a "rat" on a radio show. Michael DiSabato, right, speaks with other victims of former Ohio State team doctor Dr. Richard Strauss, at the university's board meeting on Nov. 16, 2018, in Columbus. Adam Cairns / The Columbus Dispatch via AP file.
In January, DiSabato was jailed after he missed a court date related to the harassment case. Later the same month, he pleaded no contest in Franklin County Municipal Court to one misdemeanor count of telecommunications harassment and was given two years probation, ordered to pay a $250 fine, plus court costs, and to have no contact with Finkes, according to court records.
The new lawsuit comes in the wake of a blockbuster report compiled by an independent law firm that found that university coaches and athletics administrators knew for two decades that Strauss had molested 177 male athletes and students but failed to sound the alarm.
After Perkins Coie, the law firm that was picked to conduct the Strauss investigation for OSU, released its report last week, Jordan said he had been exonerated.
Hellickson, in a video produced by DiSabato, spoke about how he confronted Strauss directly about being too “hands on” with the wrestlers and of his habit of showering with the team.
Jordan is not named in the 180-plus page report, but the Perkins Coie investigators stated in the opening pages that “students openly discussed Strauss’ examination methods or complained about his loitering presence in the shower and locker room, including in front of coaches and other Athletics Department staff.”.
A former captain of the Ohio State wrestling team on Tuesday testified before Ohio’s legislature that Rep. Jim Jordan#N#James (Jim) Daniel Jordan Hillicon Valley: Biden, Putin agree to begin work on addressing cybersecurity concerns | Senate panel unanimously advances key Biden cyber nominees | Rick Scott threatens to delay national security nominees until Biden visits border Trump, allies pressured DOJ to back election claims, documents show The tale of the last bipartisan unicorns MORE#N#(R-Ohio) asked him in 2018 to deny allegations that abuse by a former team doctor was widely known within the program.
Adam DiSabato, a member of the Ohio State wrestling program in the late '80s and early '90s, made the allegations amid a public hearing on legislation that would allow victims of former athletic department doctor Richard Strauss to waive the statute of limitations and sue the university for damages. An investigation found that Strauss abused ...
He also asserted that he eventually asked his lawyer to tell Jordan to stop calling him. DiSabato is one of several former Ohio State wrestlers who filed a lawsuit against the university alleging that it ignored victims' complaints of Strauss's continued abuse. Jordan has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the abuse.
In Congress, Jordan voted to open the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling, prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, and bar greenhouse gases from Clean Air Act rules. He voted against enforcing limits on carbon dioxide global warming pollution, tax credits for renewable electricity, tax incentives for renewable energy and energy conservation, and curtailing subsidies for oil and gas company exploration.
Ohio State University began an independent investigation in April 2018 into allegations of sexual misconduct against former wrestling team physician Richard Strauss; Strauss was the team physician during Jordan's tenure as assistant coach. Strauss died by suicide in 2005.
In March 2019, House Judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler criticized Jordan for allegedly using anti-Semitic messaging by spelling 2020 presidential candidate Tom Steyer 's name with a "$" in place of an "S" on Twitter while urging Nadler to resist calls for Trump's impeachment.
Jordan's district has been redrawn over time to minimize urban area and increase rural area ; it is now gerrymandered to avoid containing Toledo, Columbus or Cleveland (or their respective suburbs); it stretches from Lake Erie nearly to Dayton. A three-judge federal panel unanimously ruled in May 2019 that Ohio's congressional district map is unconstitutional due to partisan gerrymandering and ordered Ohio to create a new map in time for the 2020 election. But after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that courts could not review allegations of gerrymandering, the district boundaries will not change until congressional district maps are redrawn in 2022.
Jordan was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in November 1994 and represented the 85th Ohio House district for three terms. In 2000, Jordan was elected to the Ohio Senate over independent candidate Jack Kaffenberger with 88% of the vote. In 2004, Jordan defeated Kaffenberger again, with 79% of the vote.
At a later virtual committee meeting, Jordan said the storming of the United States Capitol "was as wrong as wrong can be". On January 11, 2021, Trump awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a closed-door ceremony.
Jordan was born and raised in Champaign County, Ohio, the son of Shirley and John Jordan. He attended and wrestled for Graham High School , graduating in 1982. He won state championships all four years he was in high school and compiled a 156–1 win-loss record. He then enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he became a two-time NCAA Division I wrestling champion. Jordan won the 1985 and 1986 NCAA championship matches in the 134-pound (61 kg) weight class. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1986. He lost the 126–137-pound (57–62 kg) featherweight semifinal match at the 1988 US Olympic wrestling trials and failed to make the Olympic team.