logo
Rep. Jim Jordan to be questioned under oath on Strauss sex abuse scandal

Rep. Jim Jordan to be questioned under oath on Strauss sex abuse scandal

Yahoo6 days ago
Editor's note: This article has been updated to remove information that NBC4 determined had not been made public.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will answer questions under oath in relation to the Richard Strauss sex abuse scandal at Ohio State University, sources have told NBC4.
After years of appeals, depositions are underway in the sexual abuse scandal involving Strauss, a former Ohio State University doctor. It has been seven years since the first lawsuits were filed against the university.
Jordan is set to be deposed on Friday in Washington. Former Ohio State Athletic Director Andy Geiger was deposed on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Columbus says village's speed cameras are straining city's resources
Jordan and Geiger are being questioned as part of civil lawsuits against the university. Neither have been charged with any crimes, but many have questioned what they knew about Strauss' behavior.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Jordan repeated earlier denials.
'As everyone knows, Chairman Jordan never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it,' the spokesperson said.
Sources told NBC4's Colleen Marshall that Geiger testified for at least seven hours.
Attorneys for Ohio State University have also questioned some of the survivors, whose Title IX claims accuse the university of knowing what Strauss was doing, facilitating it, and concealing it.
Survivors have shared their anguished stories as they described being sexually abused, even being drugged and raped by Strauss. But they also shared their anger as they learned the Strauss assaults lasted for nearly 20 years, and they said university leaders, even their own coaches, knew.
At least four former wrestlers and one referee are on record saying they complained about Strauss to Jordan, a then-assistant wrestling coach.
HBO recently released a documentary about the scandal. Marshall was interviewed for the documentary after reporting on the scandal for many years. Ohio State was not involved in making the documentary.
The survivors of Strauss kept quiet for decades, internalizing their trauma, but back in 2018, they started talking.
Hundreds of the survivors of the 20-year-long string of sexual assaults by the Ohio State team doctor still have cases against the university pending in federal court.
In a previous statement to NBC4, an Ohio State University spokesperson said:
Ohio State led the effort to investigate and expose Richard Strauss, and we express our deep regret and apologies to all who experienced Strauss' abuse. The university is forever grateful to the survivors who participated in the independent investigation, which could not have been completed without their strength and courage. Since 2018, we have reached settlement agreements with more than half of the plaintiffs, 296 survivors, for more than $60 million. All male students who filed lawsuits have been offered the opportunity to settle. In addition, the university continues to cover the cost of professionally certified counseling services and other medical treatment, including reimbursement for counseling and treatment received in the past.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

'This is class': Tennis world in awe over de Minaur's gesture for shattered opponent
'This is class': Tennis world in awe over de Minaur's gesture for shattered opponent

Yahoo

time12 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

'This is class': Tennis world in awe over de Minaur's gesture for shattered opponent

Alex de Minaur has blown the tennis world away with a beautiful gesture for his devastated opponent after the Washington final. De Minaur saved three championship points to win the 10th ATP title of his career on Sunday, prevailing 5-7 6-1 7-6 (3) against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Fokina was a shattered man after letting three championship points slip at 5-3 in the third - the third of which came when de Minaur produced some insane scramble to survive. The Spaniard has never won a title at ATP level, and has now fallen agonisingly short in two finals. Fokina was in tears after the final point and buried his face in his towel. De Minaur noticed how distraught his opponent was and immediately went to console him. The Aussie was seen sitting next to Fikona before wrapping an arm around his opponent and offering some words of encouragement. Tennis fans and commentators were blown away by de Minaur's gesture, which came before he'd celebrated the victory properly. He also offered some kind words for Fokina in his victory speech, saying: "You're way too good to not have one of these (trophies). It's coming for sure. You deserved it today. I just got lucky. You are a hell of a competitor and player. No one on the tour wants to play you. This is not the end. It's only going up for you." A classy gesture from Alex de Minaur 👏He consoles Davidovich Fokina after a heartbreaking final. 💔#MubadalaCitiDCOpen — Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) July 28, 2025 One person wrote on social media: "Hard not to feel for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina today and hard not to appreciate how kind this was of Alex De Minaur." Another commented: "I have a newfound respect for Alex De Minaur after he consoled Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. He is a remarkably humble individual." Alex de Minaur walks over & sits with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to console him after beating him in the Washington final. Heartbreaking match for Foki… he had 3 championship points to win his first is class… one of the moments of the year. ❤️ — The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) July 28, 2025 Alex de Minaur joins Aussie legends with 10th career title De Minaur's triumph made him just the fourth Australian to record 10 career titles since the inception of the ATP Tour in 1990. The others are Pat Rafter, Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis. The Aussie has surged from 13th in the ATP rankings up to World No.8, and looks destined for an all-important top-eight seeding at the US Open. Before the tournament began, de Minaur said he was adamant he was at his 'peak' and big wins had to start coming. 'I've got the experience now. I've got the knowledge, the physicality side of things. Everything is just there for me to go out and perform,' he said. 'I can really have a swing these next three or four years and really show that I'm at my peak and break through some barriers.' RELATED: Jannik Sinner triumph could force Aussie coach to backflip on exit call Flood of support after tennis rocked by news about Wimbledon finalist With no rankings points to defend after Wimbledon because of a hip injury he suffered last year, the Aussie will only climb higher in the rankings before Flushing Meadows. The 26-year-old took a break after the French Open after feeling burnt out, and it appears to be working wonders. He lost in straight sets to Alexander Zverev in the Washington final in 2018, but is now the champion. The World No.8 has a tour-leading 22 hard-court wins on the season, and his 42 wins at ATP 500 level since the start of the 2023 season is the most by any player on tour. with AAP

DOJ shuts down dark web child abuse sites that had 120,000 members
DOJ shuts down dark web child abuse sites that had 120,000 members

Yahoo

time12 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

DOJ shuts down dark web child abuse sites that had 120,000 members

When FBI agents arrived outside William Spearman's home in the quiet suburb of Madison, Alabama, in November 2022, they were prepared for danger. Their search warrant was so important to the bureau that it was approved by the FBI director himself. When the agents breached Spearman's door with tactical explosives, Spearman fought back, tussling with the agents as three of his handguns remained barely out of reach. The FBI managed to handcuff and arrest Spearman, a high-value arrest, in what a top Justice Department official called "one of the most successful" prosecutions of its kind. Spearman went by the nickname "Boss" and was labeled by the Justice Department as "one of the most significant" purveyors of child sex abuse material in the world. His arrest in 2022, his guilty plea a year later and his eventual life sentence were part of an unprecedented takedown of a prodigious child abuse network. Spearman is one of at least 18 people convicted so far of leading and utilizing the dark web to share hundreds of thousands of unlawful sexually exploitative images of children. The Justice Department calls the investigation and prosecutions Operation Grayskull; it helped secure those arrests and shutter four heavily trafficked dark web sites where violent and horrific images of child sexual abuse were traded and housed. The Operation Grayskull investigation launched in 2020, when law enforcement agents noticed a spike in traffic to a dark web site suspected of hosting child abuse material. The dark web child abuse sites eventually attracted more than 120,000 members, millions of files and at least 100,000 visits in a single day, according to an FBI official who spoke with CBS News. "Even for prosecutors, it is difficult to understand how pervasive this is," said Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department Criminal Division. "Because it happens on the dark web, people aren't aware of it. It's extremely troubling," he told CBS News. Spearman's case has parallels to many of the others unearthed by Operation Grayskull. Spearman was accused of helping lead a dark web site with thousands of users and members. A sentencing memo submitted to the court said it was "no wonder" that he had tried to resist the FBI, rather than surrendering. "The devices at his desk contained massive quantities of evidence proving that he was the lead administrator of Website A," the memo said. "Unsurprisingly, the defendant's devices also contained an enormous collection of images and videos depicting the rape and abuse of children." Selwyn Rosenstein was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2022, for operating a dark website for unlawful exploitative images. Prosecutors said the platform "was not simply a website; it was a large, active community of pedophiles and (abuse material) enthusiasts. And it existed in part because of the Defendant's criminal acts." Rosenstein possessed such a large quantity of abusive images, he needed to store some on a server he used to run his business, according to the Justice Department. Speaking from a second floor conference room at Justice Department headquarters in Washington last week, Galeotti told CBS News the members of these dark web child abuse sites often "earn" membership by paying a fee, "helping moderate the site" or contributing child abuse images or material. Galeotti said, "We luckily have very sophisticated prosecutors and agents who work specifically on this kind of thing. These are people who have a more of a technical understanding." "The defendants in this case, as sadistic as they may be, are somewhat sophisticated," and make use of encryption, he added. Operation Grayskull also secured the conviction of Matthew Garrell of Raleigh, North Carolina, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for operating on a dark web site for abuse material. "Garrell engaged in an extremely complex and technologically sophisticated conspiracy that far exceeds the typical child-exploitation offenses," prosecutors said. They argued in a court filing that Garrell possessed a predator's "handbook," with "detailed instructions" for grooming children for future abuse. The takedown of dark web leaders and users also included the convictions of men from Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, Texas, Washington, Arkansas, Michigan and Oklahoma. "They were part of an online community of hundreds of thousands of people, with leadership roles rules and a common dedicated purpose" said Chris Delzotto, an acting FBI deputy assistant director. Delzotto told CBS News, "Few people would have envisioned how (child abuse materials) would permeate the internet, the way it has today." The federal investigation which uncovered and shuttered the first dark web site, also led to the closure of three others. Abbigail Beccaccio, an FBI unit chief, told CBS News. "The leadership team that operated one of the sites also operated several of the others." The Justice Department is touting the shutdown of those sites as a victory to help deter future abuse or production of unlawful images. "This is one of the most successful of all time," Galeotti said. "We dismantled four websites that have not regenerated." "The Wizard of Oz" as you've never seen it before Tadej Pogačar wins his fourth Tour de France Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame

A Drunk Driver Crashed Into Me. When I Woke Up, I Was A Completely Different Person.
A Drunk Driver Crashed Into Me. When I Woke Up, I Was A Completely Different Person.

Yahoo

time12 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

A Drunk Driver Crashed Into Me. When I Woke Up, I Was A Completely Different Person.

On a Tuesday morning in 2006 in Dutchess County, New York, a woman ran out of beer. She was drunk at 10 a.m. but not as drunk as she wanted to be, so she stole a truck, procured a case of Bud, then crushed a parked car. I was in the parked car. EMTs pried me out. I woke up in a freezing room where techs were extracting sharp things from my skin. It was a Code 4 emergency, which means my life was threatened. Then it wasn't my life. The good news was that I survived. The bad news was brain damage. Years later, a neurologist said I suffered the same type of injury that former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords suffered when she was shot in the head. ,So were my legs and my arms and my feet. Post-truck, I was parked with trauma patients, rolling Play-Doh balls and pounding pegs in boards. We included a former physician, a former professor of psycholinguistics, a former custodian and a former owner of a kebab café. There's not much demand for brain-damaged writers. Since I couldn't comprehend — leave alone manage — business affairs, an attorney completed my last career financial transaction which was refunding a five-figure advance to a client known from Burundi to Beverly Hills. To pay mounting bills, he was forced to sell our home. This was all far above my new head. Movers I can't recall packed boxes I can't recall for a trip I could not wrap my head around. I landed in a sleepy southern town east of somewhere and west of somewhere else in a rambling wooden farmhouse peering out from tangled brush. It was nine hours south of my old life and my child. No trace of the move remains in my mind — it's like it didn't happen or I wasn't there. I rarely recalled I'd been moved to Virginia. This means I wondered if I should move to a place I already lived in, or leave a place I already left. My child stayed in college in New York while I spent one year in outpatient therapy. I relearned how to walk, how to talk, how to place my hands on a keyboard, how to read, how to write, how to make a cup of tea. Three years post-truck, the Social Security Disability Administration ruled my injuries were 'permanent and incurable.' Still, my daughter's 'diagnosis' was by far the worst. She said her mom disappeared. In my first life, I made sense of thousands of stories on global warming and lip gloss and sports bras and organized closets and candidates. Normal people do things like that, plus wake up, brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, get kids to school, keep clients happy and clean dryer lint. It felt like I had been thrown from a plane. Then it felt like trying to piece together any remnants of the person I was before I was thrown out of the plane. And then? It kept feeling that way. Most of us lose people we love. I lost the person I was. Related: The author several years after the accident. Related: The new 'me' had never read books I loved, never shared favorite times with my child. They tested my brain hundreds of times and found lots of things bit the dust, like the file that encodes new memories, and the file that integrates physical movements so you don't fly down the steps or fall out of your chair. I lost what happened a minute ago, a page ago, a lifetime ago. This is called amnesia. Amnesia can take anything and make it disappear. Your child's first words. Your mom's last words. Mine came with a side of aphasia. That means I couldn't find the words I needed or put them together so they made sense. I said stuff like 'white stuff sky,' which meant snow, or 'cow thing pants' which meant belt or 'green thing dirt,' which meant plant. Words often seemed to start mid-sentence — and end there, too. There are three stages of making a memory: encoding (which means you learn something), consolidation (which means you store it), and recall (which means you can find it again). Learning was hard. Storing was hard. Recall was almost impossible. I was impaired and could not be repaired. A doctor told me so. There's an irony: The drunk woman who hit me was impaired, too. You may wonder if 'insurers' covered health care bills or compensated me for pain and suffering. The answer is no. The drunk driver had three prior DUIs and no longer had a license or insurance. Because she had stolen the truck she was driving, the owner's insurance didn't pay either. The car I was in was parked and I was waiting for the woman who owned it to return, so she was not at fault and her insurer didn't pay. As a result, most of the massive medical bills were paid by me, or rather the power of attorney on my behalf. Health insurance did not/does not cover motor vehicle accidents. I encountered a Catch-22 that removed me from outpatient rehab at the end of year one, which may or may not have been linked to insurance, too. Or, rather, lack of it. The head guy (pun intended) in neuro rehab decided I was both too screwed-up and not screwed-up enough to keep receiving help. If I were more screwed up, they could do something. If I were less screwed-up, they could do something. But I wasn't, so they couldn't. And, so, I relearned to read under the patient care of no one at all. I achieved mixed results. In year two post-accident, I began trying to read a book. I read the same pages for two years. At first, they meant nothing. Then they meant something, for a few seconds. If I began where I'd left off, say on page 5, and found a character was on a train, I had no idea why he was on it or where he was going. At the same time, I started scratching anything I could recall on any surface I could find — paper plates, paper cups, placemats, napkins, coffee stirrers and Popsicle sticks. I called them scraps. They were not in alphabetical order, not in numerical order, not in chronological order, but out of order, like me. I stuffed them in brown paper shopping bags and then stashed the bags in a closet. A few years ago, Google provided 115,000,000 ways to 'clear your mind.' These included clearing your mind of stress, clearing your mind of guilt, clearing your mind of clutter, clearing your mind of negative thoughts, clearing your cookies, clearing your cache, clearing your sinuses, and clearing your mind of all thought. I had. I also found 8,310,000 jokes about brain injury on Google. Plus, of course, in cartoons all over the planet, people like us are hilarious, especially when our skulls get smashed. Think baseball bats, rifle butts, and coconuts on craniums. The intact brain is amazing. The three-pound blob remembers the theme music for The Flintstones, the name of your fifth-grade French teacher, and your childhood phone number. But put it through a windshield at 70 miles an hour,r and then it's a crapshoot. You might remember something that happened a moment ago, or you might not. You might not walk or talk again. You might wake up as an entirely different person. Or you might never wake up. Seven years ago, I began attending a newly formed brain trauma group. One member, Daniel, 'came back' from two weeks in a coma. Daniel's counselor says that the 'old' Daniel is gone. The new Daniel has new frontal lobes and a new personality, as well as the wife of his former self and three kids he can't name. Another member, Mel, kept saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' like he did something wrong. We were told most of us were in the program due to someone driving while drunk. A recent photo of the author. Brain trauma is not about the past: the successes, accomplishments, accolades. It's not even about losses. It's a muddy, rutty, hands and knees crawl up to the first rung of the ladder, and up each rung after that. There is no cure. I'm sharing this story not because I think it is exceptional, but because I know it is not. Many others with similar stories can't write because they're more disabled than I am or because they lost their lives. We all have plaque in our brain — some of us know it. Plaque can advance like armies in the night, taking more and more of us, leaving less and less. You take a detour when you see us coming, and think we don't notice, but we do. In 2021, the latest year for which there are numbers, the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA) reported 401,520 Americans were killed or injured due to someone driving while drunk. Also according to NHSTA, two out of three Americans will be impacted by drunk driving in their lifetime. Every day, lives of adults and kids are taken by impaired drivers who gain a few seconds, then take a few lives. Each statistic is a person. Each death is preventable, as is each injury. According to a recent article in The New York Times Magazine, 'From 2020 to 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has since calculated, the number of crashes in the United States soared 16 percent, to more than six million, or roughly 16,500 wrecks a day.' The article goes on to point out that, 'For public-messaging reasons, vehicular wrecks are almost never referred to by experts as 'accidents,' wording that implies no culpability on the part of the participants.' The fatality figures were somehow even worse. In 2021, the latest year for which there are figures, 42,939 Americans died in car crashes, the highest toll in a decade and a half. 'Of those deaths, a sizable portion involved intoxicated or unrestrained drivers or vehicles traveling well in excess of local speed limits.' This would be a different story if I regained my former life, complete with my former mind. I didn't. Eighteen years post-accident. I still think with a stutter, speak with a limp, and have less usable space in my brain, so I run out of memory fast. Today I had two coins in my hand. One was a dime and one was a nickel, and I didn't know which was which. I can spackle all I want but underneath I'm still broken. I frustrate others by leaning on them and by not leaning on them, and baffle them when I seem normal and when I don't. It takes decades to build a life, and seconds to destroy it. The next time someone warns you to be careful when driving home from a night out, don't roll your eyes. Heed their warning. Disabled people are the single largest minority in the world, and likely the least heard from. We are also the only minority anyone can join at any time. Trust me, you won't want to be disabled — or to take someone's life. Judith Hannah Weiss freelanced for 25 years, writing print and broadcast promotion for New York, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue and other major media. In 2006, she was hit by a drunk driver, which put things on a long pause. Her post-accident work has appeared on NBC News and in The Washington Post, The Oldster, Iowa Review, The Rumpus, Dorothy Parker's Ashes, Memoir Monday and The Pulse. You can find her on Substack at and at This article originally appeared on HuffPost in April 2024. Also in Goodful: Also in Goodful: Also in Goodful:

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store