Another suspension in Ohio AG office

The second of three big-name roomies from the Ohio Attorney General’s office has now been suspended with pay in connection with a sex harassment investigation in the office.

On Monday, Attorney General Marc Dann suspended his top spokesman and long-time friend Leo Jennings III. That follows by about a week the suspension of Anthony Gutierrez, Dann’s office manager and another long-time friend from Youngstown. The third roommate in the suburban Columbus apartment where Cindy Stankoski, a 26-year-old female employee of the office claims she suffered unwelcome attention last September, is none other than Dann himself.

Pointed questions are now being asked of Dann – questions he seemed, at least at first, reluctant to answer. His office initially balked at turning over e-mails between Dann, and his one-time scheduler, Jessica Utovich, that had been requested by the Columbus Dispatch. The attorney general’s office initially argued the e-mails were not public records. That was a curious argument given that Dann, as a crusading candidate two years ago, made a very big issue out of demanding, and getting, e-mails of Republican officials he thought were involved in shenanigans. On Tuesday his office announced they had reconsidered and would turn over the e-mails.

Utovich’s name has come up in the sex harassment case because Stankoski said in her claim that on the night she went to the apartment, Utovich showed up as well, wearing pajamas or a sweatsuit. Stankoski said she and Gutierrez had been drinking and she fell asleep, and then awoke to find her clothes unbuttoned and Gutierrez lying beside her in his underwear. Stankoski and Vanessa Stout, another employee of the office, filed sex harassment complaints with the office, claiming Gutierrez repeatedly pressured them to socialize and called it a condition of their employment. According to an office spokesman, it was information uncovered over the weekend in investigating the claims that let to Jennings’s suspension.

Jennings’ suspension and questions about Dann’s e-mails are more reasons why the attorney general cannot have anyone in his office investigating these claims. As we said in an editorial last week, he must petition the courts to appoint a special outside counsel to investigate the matter.