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Cover-Up

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Sexual Assault Info

Between the years 1978-1998, Dr. Richard Strauss who was employed by Ohio State University, sexually abused at least 177 male students-patients. OSU was aware of the abuse as early as 1979, but the abuse was not widely known outside of Athletics or Student Health until 1996, when he was suspended from his duties.

 

Strauss continued to abuse OSU students at an off-campus clinic until his retirement from the university in 1998. OSU was faulted in the report for failing to report Strauss's conduct to law enforcement.

Gym Jordan's Involvement

Mike DiSabato, who wrestled at Ohio State from 1987 to 1991, said his first examination with Strauss occurred at the age of 14, when Strauss was conducting research on the body fat of high school wrestlers; the body fat testing included an unnecessary genital exam. At the time, DiSabato did not recognize Strauss's behavior as sexual abuse and that it was considered an "open secret" amongst the wrestling team. 

 

In May 2019, DiSabato filed a Title IX lawsuit against OSU. In one count of the court papers, DiSabato claimed that a second cousin of Jordan's attempted to "intimidate and retaliate" against DiSabato. In 2019, DiSabato shared text messages with NBC News that were corroborated by another former wrestler indicating that Jim Jordan, Russ Hellickson, and high school wrestling coach Jeff Jordan (Jim Jordan's younger brother) conspired to engage in witness tampering and intimidation when they called former OSU wrestler Mark Coleman and his parents to pressure him to recant his earlier accusation that Jordan was aware of the abuse. Coleman had shared a room with Jordan while traveling to several wrestling meets.

In February 2020, Adam DiSabato--the brother of Mike DiSabato--testified under oath that Jordan called him "'crying, groveling...begging me to go against my brother.... That's the kind of cover-up that's going on there'". In the videotaped deposition, Adam DiSabato stated under oath: "[Jordan] is throwing us all under the bus, he is a coward. A coward. He is not a leader, he's a coward... I was Captain of our team, I would never abandon our Team. He abandoned us; our Head Coach (Russ Hellickson) abandoned us - [Hellickson] has flipped his story and called other people to flip their stories.

OSU Dates

Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach with the Ohio State University's (OSU) wrestling program from 1987 to 1995. During this time, he knew of the sexual abuse at the hands of Dr. Richard Strauss. These years define the man that Congressman Jordan is today.

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