Federal judge orders Ohio State and Strauss sex abuse victims into mediation

NBC News

2 days ago

A federal judge has ordered Ohio State University to resolve via mediation the remaining lawsuits filed by former students who claim it failed to protect them from a sexual predator on the school payroll.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson issued the order Monday as the university still faces five active lawsuits from 236 men alleging that Dr. Richard Strauss molested them, mostly under the guise of giving physicals.
'The Ohio State University portrays itself as a different university today than it was when Dr. Richard Strauss abused hundreds of young men — for decades — as its employee,' Watson, of the Southern District of Ohio, wrote. 'Yet it is today's Ohio State that must reckon with the consequences of that ugly past in these cases.'
If the case went to trial and the accusers won, it would be a 'pyrrhic' victory, Watson wrote.
'The best way for plaintiffs to close this horrific chapter of their lives and for Ohio State to move forward as a respectable institution of higher education, is through a mutual resolution short of a trial,' the judge wrote.
Watson, in his order, referred the cases to Layn Phillips, a former Oklahoma federal judge who mediated the lawsuits filed against Michigan State by some 200 women athletes who were sexually abused by sports doctor Larry Nasser.
Michigan State paid Nassar sex abuse survivors $500 million, which is believed to be the largest settlement ever in a sexual misconduct case involving a university.
'He got Michigan State to pay the victims millions in settlement money. So we see this as a big win for us,' one of the OSU plaintiffs, who asked not to be identified to avoid angering Watson, told NBC News.
Phillips will be working alongside fellow mediators Catherine Geyer and Michelle Yoshida, as well as law clerk Caroline Kedeshian, Watson's order states.
Watson also gave both sides a deadline of Feb. 27, 2026 to provide the court with a progress report 'at which point the Court will consider whether additional mediation would be productive.'
In the meantime, lawyers for OSU and the plaintiffs will be allowed to continue taking depositions from witnesses.
Among those who have already been deposed are Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who was the assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994 before he got into politics, four plaintiffs in lawsuits against the university told NBC News last month.
Jordan has repeatedly and publicly denied any knowledge that Strauss was preying on athletes. He was deposed about a month after the release of an HBO Max documentary about the Strauss scandal called ' Surviving Ohio State,' in which one of the wrestlers he once coached called him a liar. Jordan is not a defendant, but he is referred to in some of the lawsuits alleging he was aware of the abuse.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Watson's ruling. A spokesperson for Ohio State, Benjamin Johnson, also declined to comment, saying via email, 'We don't typically comment on pending litigation."
Ohio State found itself under fire in 2018 after a whistleblowing former wrestler named Mike DiSabato went public with allegations that Strauss had sexually abused him and hundreds of other athletes and that the school knew about it but did nothing to stop him.
Strauss preyed on hundreds of men from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s. He died by suicide in 2005.
An independent investigation sponsored by Ohio State and conducted by the Perkins Coie law firm concluded in May 2019 that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 male athletes and students and that coaches and administrators knew about it for two decades but failed to stop him.
Since the release of the report, OSU has said it has paid out $60 million in settlement money and its former president has publicly apologized 'to each person who endured' abuse at the hands of Strauss. But it has balked at settling the remaining lawsuits.