There are now reportedly nine former Ohio State wrestlers who all say then-assistant coach Jim Jordan, now a powerful Republican U.S. Congressman, had to have known the team’s doctor was sexually abusing wrestlers. The latest is now saying categorically that he told Rep. Jordan he had been sexually assaulted by the team physician. Jordan “snickered” when he told him.
Seven of the nine have given their names. At least five say they themselves were assaulted by the doctor, Richard Strauss. Others say they witnessed abuse or that it was common knowledge.
Rep. Jordan has repeatedly offered different denials, including one suggesting the stories of sexual assault were just “locker room” talk, suggesting that if a formal complaint was not filed it never happened or he did not consider that to be sufficient evidence for him to “know” about it.
“Jim Jordan knew. He didn’t do anything about it,” the former wrestler told CNN in a report published Tuesday. That report notes that the former wrestler, who has requested anonymity, supported Jordan, “when he first ran for office, despite identifying as a Democrat. He remembers directly telling Jordan about Strauss’ behavior.”
“I remember coming up and saying, ‘Strauss held my balls longer than normal.’ He just snickered.”
CNN reports the account from this latest wrestler to step forward includes a “time when he went into the wrestling room at OSU and a few athletes and Jordan were ‘clumped together.’ He said he remembered saying, ‘something to the effect of ‘his hands are cold as s**t; he checked out every hair on my ball,” and said Jordan replied, ‘I have nothing to do with this’ and walked away.”
“He’s sitting here and directly lying,” the former wrestler says.
CNN’s story does not state the number of wrestlers who have accused Jordan of knowing yet ignoring the sexual abuse, but “five of the accusers say they ‘like’ Jordan, several consider him a friend, and one even donated to his election campaign,” AmericaBlog, which has published a very detailed summary and timeline of the accusations, reports, putting the number at nine.
>Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license