Dead Ohio State doctor sexually abused ‘potentially thousands of its students’

Seven years after the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal rocked Happy Valley and forever stained the legacy of the late Penn State Nittany Lions football coaching legend Joe Paterno, Big 10 rival Ohio State and Buckeye Nation may be facing a similar backlash after a federal class-action civil lawsuit was filed against the university. The suit alleges a former OSU doctor and assistant professor sexually abused and molested “potentially thousands of its students.”

Dr. Richard Strauss, the former OSU employee at the center of the explosive claims, was the official OSU medical doctor and was hired by the university in 1978 as an assistant professor of medicine, according to the civil complaint, which was filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Ohio.

The suit also alleges Ohio State University “failed to take appropriate action (or, in fact, any action whatsoever) to stop or prevent Dr. Strauss from continuing his rampant sexual misconduct.”

“Ohio State must take responsibility for a dark (and until recently, buried) chapter in its storied history, a chapter during which its campus became a ‘cesspool of deviancy' and its doctor and assistant professor, Dr. Richard Strauss sexually assaulted, battered, molested, and/or harassed potentially thousands of its students,” the complaint reads. “From 1981 to 1995, Strauss was the university's team doctor and had contact with athletes in baseball, cheerleading, cross country, fencing, football, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, and wrestling. Dr. Strauss was employed by OSU until he retired in 1998.”

During the two decades Strauss worked at OSU, the complaint reads, Strauss “is estimated to have sexually assaulted, abused, battered, molested, and/or harassed 1,500 to 2,500 male student athletes.” Strauss died in 2005. The four plaintiffs' identities are not revealed and they are listed as John Doe 1 through 4 in the suit. All four plaintiffs were former members of OSU's varsity wrestling team, and all claim Strauss sexually abused them when they were student-athletes.

“Plaintiff John Doe 2 is a resident of the State of Ohio and a former student-athlete on OSU's varsity wrestling team. He was first abused by Dr. Strauss when he was 14 years old, and he was sexually assaulted, battered, molested, and/or harassed by Dr. Strauss during approximately 50 examinations by Dr. Strauss in the late 1980s and 1990s,” reads the complaint, outlining some of the stomach-turning accusations.

According to the complaint, Strauss was known as “Dr. Jelly Paws” by OSU student-athletes, and the nickname originated from Strauss' “notoriously hands-on physical examinations,” according to the complaint.

Some of the lurid allegations against Strauss mirror elements of the Sandusky/Penn State case. Strauss used the OSU facilities to carry out his alleged abuse, the complaint reads, much like the former PSU football coach Sandusky did when he was a member of Paterno's coaching staff. Sandusky, 74, was found guilty on 45 of 48 counts of child sexual abuse and rape in 2012. He is serving a 30 to 60-year prison sentence.

“For decades, Dr. Strauss was a fixture in the locker rooms, showers, and saunas of Larkins Hall, the former student and faculty recreation center on the Ohio State campus that housed the wrestling, gymnastics, and swimming teams,” the complaint reads. “Dr. Strauss also scheduled his showers so that he could view his favorite athletes naked.”

Bob Allard, one the plaintiffs' attorneys, called the OSU case “worse” than the Penn State/Sandusky scandal.