Admittedly, it going to be difficult for me to refrain from engaging in a bit of schadenfreude in response to the allegations in an article by NBC News that right-wing Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan is “being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students,” but I’m going to try.
Shades of Penn State and Jerry Sandusky.
Of course, the fact that young people were sexually abused and traumatized tempers my glee, but nonetheless, if Jordan is guilty as accused, I want to see him hung out to dry and will greatly relish every moment of his downfall. He has been one of the most mean-spirited political leaders in America, one that has helped to usher in this period of pure hell, agony and distrust; and the country would be much better off with the likes of him out of Congress.
Let’s go back to the beginning. In April the university announced that it was “investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s.” Jordan was the assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994 “but has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring and continued to deny it. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team.”
The article goes on to say, “Three former wrestlers told NBC News that it was common knowledge that Strauss showered regularly with the students and inappropriately touched them during appointments, and said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse.”
Strauss, allegedly, wasn’t the only Ohio State official who showered with the team. The article states. “After practice ended at 3:30pm, some university professors, administrators and others would show up in the shower stalls just as the athletes were arriving.” Seemingly it was a culture of tolerated sexual abuse that’s being alleged.
The former wrestler who initially came forth with the allegations is Mike DiSabato, who stated that if Jordan says he didn’t know about the abuse he’s a liar. At this point, hundreds of former student athletes have been interviewed by investigators, and many are corroborating DiSabato’s version of the events and culture that existed at Ohio State at the time.
Another former wrestler whose testimony appears on a video DiSabato submitted to investigators described how Strauss grabbed his penis during an examination. “I didn’t do a thing,” he said when asked how he responded. “Probably, because I was scared.”
Either way, Jim Jordan is screwed. If he knew about the abuse and remained silent, he deserves to be brought up on criminal charges of misprision of a felony (which means that he had knowledge of a crime being committed and did nothing to report it). And if he, as the assistant coach, didn’t know what the hell was going on, then he’s too dumb to be a member of Congress and should be sent packing by voters at the earliest possible moment.
However, I’m betting on the former, rather than the latter: I believe he knew, and I believe that it’s going to come out that he knew.
There is a God after all.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.