MiddletownJournal.com

COLUMBUS — Lewd comments. Racy e-mails. Drunken driving. Guns. Profanity. A sex toy.

It sounds more like elements to an R-rated movie than a report about what's been happening inside the Ohio attorney general's office.

Executive Attorney General Ben Espy and First Assistant Attorney General Tom Winters laid out the findings in a 57-page report that put most of the blame on Anthony Gutierrez, Edgar Simpson and Leo Jennings III — Marc Dann's longtime friends who he hired early on in his administration.

While those three lost their jobs, Dann escaped discipline.

"I'm not sure what we can do to Mr. Dann because we can't discharge him, we can't suspend him. We don't have that authority or power," Espy said. He noted he recommended Dann receive training on professionalism.

Dann praised the report, saying it "brought results that were firm and fair and detailed and exhaustive."

Others disagreed. By late afternoon, Gov. Ted Strickland and Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern were calling for an independent investigation. Numerous Republicans called for Dann to resign.

Men behaving badly

The internal report painted a picture of men behaving badly and others turning a blind eye toward it.

Witnesses described Gutierrez as someone who would frequently use the f-word, including in front of his 12-year-old daughter, stare at women's chests while talking to them, make lewd comments, and use his close ties to Dann to intimidate people. He also boasted about family ties to the Mafia.

Doug Armbrust, a facilities manager in Gutierrez's department, testified, "He also carried a gun and had his office sound-proofed. I think he was a little paranoid."

Molly Taylor, another general services employee, requested a transfer to another floor. "I couldn't work up there anymore, the vulgarity, the sexual harassment, everything that was going on," she said.

Another worker, Mariellen Aranda, received alarming text messages from Cindy Stankoski, one of the two women who filed the sexual harassment complaint, and at times witnessed Gutierrez's inappropriate comments and behavior toward women. By Oct. 10, she had had enough and went to Dann's human resources department with details.

"I hadn't been in state government for long, but I knew enough that this was a ticking time bomb for the office," Aranda testified.

Rex Elliott, an attorney for Stankoski and Vanessa Stout, the other staffer who filed the harassment claim against Gutierrez, said that the women were pleased with the report because it vindicated their accounts of what happened.

But Elliott also said the women were "very disappointed" that Dann did not apologize to them specifically for what happened.

Gutierrez, who declined comment for this story, told investigators he had no idea why Stout and Stankoski had accused him of sexual harassment, given the socializing and joking around they did with him.

Stout and Stankoski played practical jokes on Gutierrez, including prank calling him and farting in a Tupperware container and inviting him to smell the contents, according to Gutierrez' secretary Kristi August.

Gutierrez admitted giving Stout a sex toy. Stout said he later asked her, "have you used that thing yet?"

Stankoski and Stout both reported they felt intimidated by Dann's wife, Alyssa Lenhoff. One witness, Pete Mash, described a holiday visit by Lenhoff in which she "invaded Stankoski's personal space and gave her an intimidating look." In her interview with investigators, Stout said she confronted Gutierrez after she was transferred from her job as a telecommunications assistant. Gutierrez told her Dann was behind the transfer.

Shortcomings of probe

The Espy investigation had its shortcomings:

• Espy put witnesses under oath, but they were not compelled to testify and it wasn't a formal court proceeding.

• Espy purposefully steered clear of trying to verify rumors of affairs between managers and subordinates and punted allegations that Gutierrez drove state vehicles while drunk to the Ohio Highway Patrol.

• People who may have provided insight were not interviewed, including Dann's wife and his former executive assistant Colleen Brown.

• Espy allowed Jessica Utovich, Dann's former scheduler, to avoid questions she didn't care to answer, and Dann was given a second interview after he read a transcript of his first statement and wanted to clarify a few points.

• Espy did not explore allegations that Gutierrez carried a gun in his state vehicle.

• Espy and Winters serve at the pleasure of Dann.

The report skirted Dann's rumored affair — confirmed by him on Friday — with Utovich. Espy and Winters admitted they had heard rumors of managers having affairs with subordinates but did little about them. Winters himself cancelled plans for Utovich to travel to Turkey with Dann in June 2007.

Dann gave few details about the affair at his press conference, calling it a "romantic relationship" and declining to name Utovich. When asked if the affair was a violation of his own policy, he said, "I don't know."

"You don't know?" a reporter asked.

"I don't know what it says," he responded, adding, "Look, a consensual affair is not necessarily a violation of our sexual harassment policy, however it was wrong."

The Dann administration promised to make changes:

• Stout can keep her current post in the information technology division or return to her old job. Stankoski, who returned from a vacation Wednesday to find that her desk had been ransacked, can keep her job in telecommunications as well. Both will be offered professional counseling.

• Interim Chief of Policy and Administration Paula Luna Paoletti and Jim Friedman, former chief of staff for Gov. John Gilligan, will review management policies and procedures.

• A new Equal Employment Opportunity officer will be appointed and an employee hot line will be set up to take complaints.

• Use of office e-mail and equipment will be audited and new policies developed.

• An independent investigator will be appointed to review the issues.

• Findings regarding Gutierrez's misuse of state property, including allegations that he conducted a private business while on state time, will be referred to the Ohio Ethics Commission.

Stout talked about a climate of fear in the office, particularly after she filed her harassment complaint in March.

She said co-workers told her, "'You need to start watching behind your back. You don't know what these men are capable of.' "

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