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Ohio attorney general admits to affair with subordinate. Two fired, two resign in fallout from harassment probe. Governor sees 'some double standard'
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal Columbus Bureau
Published on Saturday, May 03, 2008
COLUMBUS: Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann admitted Friday to having an affair with an employee, but the embattled Democrat said he would not step down from office.
At the same time, he fired Anthony Gutierrez, director of general services, and Leo Jennings III, his communications director.
Both men were on unpaid administrative leave pending an internal investigation of sexual harassment charges leveled by two employees against Gutierrez, who shared a condo with Dann and Jennings.
Two more employees, Ed Simpson, chief of policy and administration, and Jessica Utovich, Dann's former scheduler, resigned.
Dann said he believed his admitting to the affair and apologizing was punishment enough.
But Gov. Ted Strickland, a fellow Democrat speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, said ''there seems to be some double standard,'' referring to Dann's firing of his employees while holding fast to his own position.
Strickland called for an immediate external investigation, said Keith Dailey, his spokesman. Dann said he would pursue an external independent inquiry if neither of the women who brought the charges — Cindy Stankoski and Vanessa Stout — seeks one.
Investigations by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and State Highway Patrol are ongoing.
In an internal investigation released Friday, Ben Espy and Julie Pfeiffer, senior attorneys in Dann's office, pulled few punches in their report, outlining a work and after-hours atmosphere that was loose, lewd and, in a number of cases, potentially illegal.
Espy said charges of cronyism, a hostile work environment, sexual harassment and excessive use of profanity were all true, but he did not have the authority to mete out punishment to Dann, although he criticized his boss in the report for poor judgment.
Dann's admission of infidelity at the 11 a.m. news conference overshadowed the investigation.
Dann said he had been involved in an extramarital relationship with an employee he refused to name.
Dann apologized to his wife, his children and Ohioans, asking for their forgiveness.
He said he told his wife, Alyssa Lenhoff Dann, about the affair months ago and had been working to be a better husband, manager and attorney general.
Scandalous allegations
As allegations arose against Gutierrez, questions were raised about the relationship between Utovich and Dann.
Stankoski said she saw Utovich in Dann's condo wearing sweats. Stout said that from her apartment across the street, she saw Utovich coming and going in the morning and late at night.
Espy said during the investigation, Utovich refused to answer whether she spent nights at Dann's condo.
''The fact that she would not answer is an answer unto itself,'' Espy said.
Under oath, Dann told Espy that Utovich spent nights at the condo. The pair wanted to travel on attorney general business to Turkey together, but Tom Winters, first assistant attorney general, said he stopped those plans.
On Sept. 10, the report said, Gutierrez and Stankoski ended up at the condo after having drinks at several spots in downtown Columbus. Dann invited them, and offered to buy Hawaiian pizza if Stankoski joined them at the condo.
The report notes Dann should have made arrangements to see Stankoski home safely.
Instead, Stankoski, who said she was drunk, went to sleep on Gutierrez's bed and woke up to find three of the buttons on her pants undone. She said Gutierrez admitted unbuttoning her pants, but he denied it under questioning by Espy.
The report also takes Dann to task for letting Stout visit the condo on numerous occasions after being hired by his office.
Espy and Pfeiffer interviewed 22 employees, but did not talk to Lenhoff Dann or Gutierrez's wife. They also reviewed personnel files, BlackBerry and desk telephone and vehicle records, itineraries, e-mails, credit-card records, and writing samples.
Inappropriate behavior
Gutierrez was fired for allegedly behaving in a sexually inappropriate manner on three occasions with Stankoski. He allegedly made crude comments and leered at her in the workplace, and made vulgar, explicit comments to Stout.
Gutierrez, according to the report, intimidated co-workers with tales of his power and mafia connections in Youngstown.
He drove drunk and wrecked state-issued vehicles without filing accident reports, and, the report said, carried a concealed weapon into a public building.
Stout and Stankoski went to the attorney general's equal employment officer, Angela Smedlund, in March to file charges against Gutierrez. Smedlund is being reassigned following the internal investigation.
Espy said it was difficult to determine whether some of the verbal sexual interplay between Gutierrez and the two women was welcome or unwelcome, and much of their behavior was fueled by excessive drinking.
The report also said that Gutierrez gave Stout a sex toy; that she did not disclose theft convictions when hired; and that Gutierrez bypassed human resources, going directly to Simpson, to get her hired.
Gutierrez's wife reportedly saw an offensive e-mail that Stout sent her husband in December and demanded he take action against her.
He pushed to transfer Stout from his division after inaccurate rumors arose that the two were having an inappropriate relationship, according to the report.
Espy and Pfeiffer looked into three ''incidents'' involving Gutierrez and Stankoski: the pizza party at the condo, a trip in October to Cincinnati and a dinner with two other employees, Jennings and Jennifer Urban.
In each case, everyone interviewed offered contradictory accounts to investigators.
'I will not lie'
Jennings, the communications director who was fired, is accused of attempting to impede the investigation by trying to persuade Urban to give false testimony.
The report said Urban sent a text message to Dann on April 11 saying: ''I will not lie like Leo [Jennings] wants me to. I will not risk my bar admission. I love you and Tony and Leo, but not enough to get disbarred.''
According to the report, Jennings wanted Urban to ''play a little bit fast and loose with Espy'' and Jennings' effort to explain the request was not credible.
Simpson resigned after talking to Winters on Thursday night.
He is accused of failing to investigate or take other remedial steps when he first heard about Stout and Stankoski's complaints in March.
Simpson and Lenhoff Dann worked together at the Warren Tribune Chronicle, and Gutierrez lives a few doors down from the Danns in Liberty near Youngstown.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann admitted Friday to having an affair with an employee, but the embattled Democrat said he would not step down from office.
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