Dewine seeks change
Strauss at OSU: 20 years of anguish
An independent investigative report released by Ohio State University on Friday said Dr. Richard Strauss sexually abused at least 177 students throughout his 20-year tenure as an athletics and student health doctor at the school. Because the abuse dates back decades, and Strauss died in 2005, the case is different
from other instances of widespread sex abuse at colleges, such as Michigan State and Penn State universities.
Here’s a look at Strauss’ career and misconduct, what makes this case unique and what might be next for the victims:
What was Strauss’ role at Ohio State?
Strauss was hired by Ohio State in 1978 as an assistant professor in the College of Medicine. Within months, he began volunteering with the athletic department as a team physician for sports based out of Larkins Hall, the university’s physical education building. His responsibilities as a team physician would later extend beyond those teams to facilities across campus, according to the report prepared by the Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie.
Strauss would go on to be associate director of the sports medicine program at Ohio State, take a formal appointment in the athletic department in 1981 and, in 1994, a part-time appointment with Student Health. His contracts as a physician for the Department of Athletics and Student Health were terminated in 1997 after a university investigation into his conduct. Strauss retired in March 1998 with an emeritus honorary designation.
What was the extent of Strauss’ abuse?
Investigators found university officials began receiving complaints and had knowledge of Strauss’ misconduct as early as 1979, months after the doctor arrived at Ohio State in September 1978. Strauss’ abuse went on for years and ranged from subtle acts under a pretextual medical purpose to more-overt actions. He fondled patients’ genitals and conducted genital or rectal exams even when they were medically unnecessary, the report said. Accounts from some students showed Strauss’ misconduct escalated as time went on.
In addition to explicit physical abuse, investigators determined Strauss also made unnecessary comments about their bodies and genitals and was known to shower with students, loiter in locker rooms and look at students as they changed clothes.
What did Strauss have to say about the allegations?
When university officials eventually started taking steps to investigate and discipline Strauss in the mid-1990s, he challenged the allegations and administrators’ decisions. He protested his 1997 removal from the athletic and Student Health departments, even appealing to thenpresident E. Gordon Gee. There was no indication that Gee ever personally responded.
Strauss wrote that he conducted his examinations in accordance with medical standards.
In a 1996 letter to David Williams II, vice president for student affairs, Strauss denied the allegations that he had inappropriately touched a patient during an exam at Student Health Services or that he had prolonged the examination or used inappropriate language.
“It is unfortunate that the patient ejaculated in my office, but that’s his problem, not mine,” Strauss wrote in the letter.
Further, Strauss objected to complaints from the patient and his mother, who contacted the university after the incident.
“I do not intend to allow my career to be destroyed by a young man attempting to use political influence to cover up an embarrassing medical finding,” he wrote.
What were the circumstances surrounding Strauss’ death?
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.
He left a note behind, according to a coroner’s report, but its contents have not been made publicly available despite requests from The Dispatch.
The doctor’s family told Perkins Coie investigators that Strauss was struggling with depression and chronic abdominal pain at the time of his death. The coroner’s report said the note found at the scene attributed his suicide to “significant escalating medical and pain problems since January 2002, which were not consistent with (Strauss’) preferred lifestyle,” the Perkins Coie report said.
Strauss reportedly took steps to eliminate most of his personal possessions before his suicide, the report said, and his family did not recover any personal papers or other documentation that might have been relevant to the Perkins Coie investigation.
Is this similar to abuse by Dr. Larry Nassar at Michigan State or Jerry Sandusky at Penn State? Yes and no.
Like Strauss, Nassar was accused of sexually abusing hundreds of gymnasts through his work with USA Gymnastics and Michigan State. Sandusky was charged with abusing 10 young boys over several years who were connected to The Second Mile, a group foster home for troubled boys he founded that grew into a large nonprofit organization.
“The similarities are that this was a person who was in a position of responsibility and privilege,” Ohio State President Michael V. Drake told reporters last week. “And the person in a position of responsibility and privilege used — artfully used — that position to abuse students and others on a serial basis for an extended period of time.”
Unlike the Michigan State and Penn State cases, Strauss’ 2005 death means there can never be criminal proceedings against him.
Though there will be no criminal trial for Strauss, Gov. Mike Dewine pointed to the former doctor’s abuse Monday to call for the lengthening or elimination of statutes of limitation on sex crimes and related lawsuits.
Ohio State already faces lawsuits from three groups of plaintiffs who said they were abused by Strauss, and more could be on the way. The parties are currently engaged in mediation.
Penn State had paid out well over $100 million in settlements as of early last year and several millions in legal fees. The university was also fined $24 million by the U.S. Department of Education for violations of the Clery Act for failing to report assaults by Sandusky on campus.
In the Nassar case, Michigan State paid $500 million to settle lawsuits brought by more than 300 victims of the doctor. The settlement is thought to be the largest ever reached in a sexual abuse case involving a university.