Youngstown State domestic violence response queried
University took no action until after the OSU media frenzy.
Youngstown YOUNGSTOWN —
State University officials claimed they received reports of an assistant football coach’s involvement in a domestic-violence incident in April.
Yet the university took no action until Aug. 7, six days after the start of a media frenzy around similar allegations at The Ohio State University.
A Sept. 10 YSU report recommended Richard McNutt receive a five-day suspension for an incident in which he allegedly pushed his wife and knocked a phone out of her hand during a marital dispute April 7.
YSU President Jim Tressel, who the report said was aware of McNutt’s marital issues, declined to comment on the delay in action declaring it a personnel matter.
“(The OSU case) probably influenced our campus to look at our policies,” athletic director Ron Strollo said. “Anytime something like this happens, it gives you a time to pause and take a closer look at what you’re doing and try to get better.”
Other senior administration officials declined to comment on the timing of the investigation and whether the OSU investigation prompted action at YSU.
Shannon Tirone, associate vice president for university relations, pointed to the report.
“You know what we know,” Tirone said.
University spokeswoman Becky Rose said YSU is reviewing its policies on domestic violence.
“What came out of that report was that we need to review our policies and come more in line with what’s going on in the world today,” she said. “So that’s happening.”
A timeline assembled through the inspection of police, court and university records shows a number of events involving McNutt between Feb. 22 and April 19 that resulted in three calls to police, one police report, a mutual restraining order and a protection order issued against him.
McNutt’s wife filed for divorce Feb. 22. He was served with the notice of divorce and a mutual restraining order while at work at Stambaugh Stadium the next day.
Without referencing the February filing, the Sept. 10 report says: “The facts establish that the incident which occurred on April 7 was the only incident that potentially required reporting.”
Thus far the university has made no comment on whether being served with divorce papers and a restraining order on school property require a report to superiors or those in charge of campus security.
A university policy states any student or employee who has obtained a protection order must inform their immediate supervisor and the university police department and provide the police department a copy.
YSU police Chief Shawn Varso said the department never received the order of protection filed April 19 against McNutt.
“In this case, for some reason, we didn’t get one,” Varso said.
The university report said McNutt self-reported the April 7 incident to football coach Bo Pelini who in turn told athletic director Ron Strollo in April “around the same time the incident occurred.”
The YSU report does not provide many specific dates and uses terms such as “generally informed” to describe supervisors’ knowledge of McNutt’s ongoing marital issues.
But after the April report, nothing happened until August shortly after media reports on OSU football coach Urban Meyer having knowledge of a 2015 domestic violence incident involving his assistant coach Zach Smith.
The case commanded national media attention for the week leading up to the start of YSU’s investigation.
Cryshanna Leftwich-Jackson, former women and gender studies program director and acting chairwoman of politics and international relations at YSU, said when she heard about the case, she immediately thought of the Urban Meyer case.
“Once again we have this culture of bad behavior,” she said.
Though the YSU case has several parallels to the OSU case, the OSU case resulted in suspensions for Meyer and athletic director Gene Smith for their failure to alert the compliance office.
Meyer and Gene Smith relied upon the fact that Zach Smith had not been arrested or charged in a 2015 incident.
Similarly, the report issued by YSU states “no further steps were taken in reliance upon the fact that law enforcement made no arrest nor brought criminal charges against Mr. McNutt.”
The YSU report does allow that because of the victims’ reluctance to pursue charges in domestic violence cases “those indicators should not be the deciding factors for determining when to take action and what action to take.”
The McNutt case also shows how the handling of domestic-violence cases can put victims in a difficult situation.
According to Canfield police records, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor authorized a domestic-violence charge against McNutt but was advised not to pursue it once McNutt’s wife decided not to press charges.
She told a detective she “was made aware that McNutt would be fired from his job if criminally charged and that would risk her children not having health care and additional benefits.”
McNutt’s wife declined to speak to The Vindicator or say who made her aware of potential implications of pressing charges.
Leftwich-Jackson said people are put in situations where they tolerate behaviors like domestic violence.
“Say he loses his job and he’s the sole breadwinner — is there (enough) support in this community and at this university for a spouse who has been the victim of domestic violence?” she asked. “There’s no cookie-cutter policy, but there are always ripple effects.”
Malinda Gavins, program director at Sojourner House, agreed, saying survivors of domestic violence often stay in dangerous situations because of family concerns.