Ex-athletes say
Ex-athletes say Ohio State doctor groped, ogled men for years before his ’05 suicide
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Ohio State doctor groped and ogled men for years.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — On paper, Richard Strauss was a well-regarded Ohio State University physician who examined young athletes for decades as a team doctor and sports-medicine researcher.
Some former athletes recall him differently: Lockerroom voyeur. Serial groper. “Dr. Jelly Paws.”
In interviews with The Associated Press in recent weeks, seven former athletes and a former nursing student shared detailed allegations of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s against the doctor, who killed himself in 2005 at age 67 and is only now under investigation.
The eight men, including three who didn’t want their names made public, say they want to see anyone who ignored concerns about Strauss held accountable and hope to make sure something similar doesn’t happen to others.
They described how Strauss fondled them during medical exams and ogled naked young men, sometimes showering among athletes multiple times a day for no apparent reason or perching himself on a stool to stare. Some said Strauss groped them barehanded during physicals, had them drop their pants even while examining them for a cough or heartburn, and badgered students to go home with him.
Two of the athletes say Strauss wasn’t stopped even after they complained — one to a coach and another to a school physician.
Former wrestling team captain Dave Mulvin said he raised concerns in the late 1970s, when Strauss fondled him during an exam that Mulvin ended, telling the doctor his behavior was “weird.” Mulvin said he went to the student health center to finish the exam and complained about Strauss to another doctor, who shrugged it off.
Some athletes saw it as the price of getting medicine or treatment.
Nick Nutter, an AllAmerican wrestler in the 1990s, said he constantly did a calculation before deciding whether to see Strauss: “Is this injury bad enough that I’m going to get molested for it?”
Strauss described the fondling as just “doing his job,” said ex-wrestler Denyasha Yetts.
Yetts said he complained about Strauss to his coach after being groped during three exams, and the coach, Russ Hellickson, told the doctor to stop such behavior.
Other wrestlers said Hellickson, who coached at Ohio State for two decades starting in 1986, expressed concerns to a Larkins Hall administrator about voyeurism at the recreation and training center, where they said Strauss and other older male faculty members and university employees were known to go to leer at athletes in the locker rooms, showers and sauna.
Hellickson said he never ignored abuse of wrestlers. And former assistant coach Jim Jordan, now a Republican congressman from Ohio, has insisted he was never aware of any abuse, a claim he repeated Friday on Fox News.
“It’s false. I never saw, never heard of, never was told about any type of abuse,” Jordan said. “If I had been, I would have dealt with it.”
But two former wrestlers, Yetts and Mike DiSabato, dispute Jordan’s account.
Yetts was convicted of fraud over an investment scheme, and DiSabato has been involved in legal disputes with the university over business matters, but they said none of that has any bearing on their allegations or their credibility.
DiSabato said he never spoke up about Strauss while he was at the university because he didn’t recognize it as abuse and he did not want to jeopardize his wrestling career. He said Strauss’ behavior was known among wrestlers.
Independent investigators are reviewing allegations against Strauss by men from 14 sports and are also looking into his work for student health services and at his off-campus medical clinic.
The university said last week that it is “focused on uncovering what may have happened during this era, what university leaders at the time may have known, and whether any response at the time was appropriate.”
The case has echoes of the scandal involving former sports doctor Larry Nassar, who sexually abused hundreds of girls and women while he worked for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics. Michigan State agreed to a $500 million settlement, and Nassar has been sent to prison for the rest of his life.
Strauss joined Ohio State in 1978 and was on the faculty and medical staff. He earned tenure, published a variety of research and was selected to test Olympic athletes for illegal drug use during the 1984 Summer Games in L.A.