OSU, plaintiffs in Strauss case still can’t agree on mediator
After weeks of disagreement, Ohio State University and former students who say they were sexually abused by former university physician Richard Strauss have not settled on a mediator to handle their cases, indicating that a federal judge in Columbus will have to decide who will help resolve the matter.
Each party, in a joint notice filed late Tuesday, suggested additional mediators for the cases, but each party again opposed the other’s suggestions.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson had originally asked the parties to submit ideas for potential mediators in mid-january. At that time, he said the intent was to begin mediation within 30 days. After the parties came back with different opinions on mediators, Watson asked both last month to confer on a number of issues, including determining a mutually agreeable mediator.
In Tuesday’s notice, the plaintiffs suggested retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Diane Welsh, formerly of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and now with JAMS — a Californiaheadquartered private dispute-resolution firm — and highlighted her experience in mediating civil-rights claims under Title IX and involving serial sexual abuse.
Ohio State proposed attorney Robert Hanson of the Columbus firm Scherner & Hanson, highlighting his 40 years of experience and former mediation work on sexual-abuse cases involving school employees and doctors.
Scott Smith, attorney for one group of plaintiffs, said the parties have tried to agree but remain “so far apart in terms of what we believe.”
“We regret that this has to be the case, but it doesn’t appear that the parties can agree to one (mediator), although we both tried very hard to do so.”
“We appreciate the court’s care and attention to this matter, remain committed to the mediation process, and will continue to work with the court on its efforts to find pathways of resolution,” said Mike Carpenter, special counsel for Ohio State, in a statement.
An investigation into the Strauss allegations and what university officials might have known at the time has been under way since April, when Ohio State announced the first allegation and hired Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie to carry out the probe. Since then, at least 150 people have come forward with firsthand accounts of abuse by Strauss. The doctor retired from Ohio State in 1998 and killed himself in 2005.
Ohio State has suggested a number of mediators but has repeatedly opposed plaintiffs’ previous suggestions of mediators with experience handling highprofile sexual-abuse cases.
“Ohio State has proposed three excellent mediators,” university spokesman Ben Johnson said in an email. They are: Hanson; James Holderman, a retired chief judge of the federal Northern District of Illinois in Chicago and a JAMS member; and Paul Calico, chief mediator of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “We would welcome the court’s appointment of any of these three candidates to mediate this matter,” Johnson said.
“OSU hired a specialist for itself when it hired Perkins Coie,” said Samina Vourlis, an attorney representing another group of plaintiffs. “Our question is, why not hire a specialist to mediate with the victims?”