Ohio State reaches $100 million Strauss abuse settlement

Ohio State University has agreed to pay about $100 million to settle claims by 279 former students who said they were sexually abused decades ago by campus doctor Richard Strauss, a major step toward ending years of litigation over what the school knew and failed to stop.

The university’s Board of Trustees approved the preliminary agreement Wednesday. It covers all but one of the 280 survivors with claims still pending in federal lawsuits, according to a joint statement from Ohio State and lawyers for the accusers. The remaining former student was not identified.

“The survivors of the Strauss abuse are all Buckeyes, will always be a part of our family and our community, and I firmly believe that,” Ohio State President Ravi Bellamkonda said during the board meeting. “We continue to be very grateful to them for their courage in coming forward, and reaching a final resolution is very important to us and is an important step forward.”

Details of the settlement are still being finalized. In the coming weeks, NBC News reported, a court-appointed special master is expected to interview each man involved in the litigation to determine the level of harm and how much settlement money each will receive.

Strauss worked at Ohio State from 1978 to 1998 and also ran an off-campus clinic. He died by suicide in 2005, NBC News reported. The university has been fighting Strauss-related lawsuits in federal court since 2018, when former students accused Ohio State of failing to stop abuse they said had occurred under the guise of medical exams.

Before the new agreement, Ohio State had settled with 317 other survivors for more than $61 million. Many former student athletes signed sealed agreements that kept their names private, and some former NFL players were among the victims, according to a lawyer in one of the lawsuits cited by CBS News.

An independent investigation by the law firm Perkins Coie, released in 2019, concluded that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 male athletes and other students from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s. It also found that coaches and administrators knew of complaints about Strauss for two decades but failed to stop him. CBS News reported that the investigation found Ohio State personnel knew of complaints about Strauss’ conduct as early as 1979 but did not investigate or take meaningful action for years.

Two of Strauss’ accusers, former student athletes Steve Snyder-Hill and Ron McDaniel, described their experiences to CBS News in 2018.

“He was a doctor,” Snyder-Hill said. “I was a student. I went in there vulnerable. I was even more vulnerable because he had me de-clothed. And I’m sitting there in front of him. And everything’s going really badly.”

Snyder-Hill said that after he reported an incident, the director of student health services wrote a letter saying it “had never received a complaint about Dr. Strauss before.” McDaniel said Strauss’ behavior had long been an open secret.

“We thought we were doing the right thing in telling our coach,” McDaniel said. “They were the athletic department. We looked to the coaches, the trainers and the doctors to do the right thing.”

NBC News reported that former wrestler Mike DiSabato came forward in 2018 with allegations that Strauss had sexually abused him and hundreds of other male athletes. DiSabato and other former Ohio State wrestlers have accused U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, an assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, of doing nothing to stop Strauss. Jordan has repeatedly denied knowing about the alleged abuse. His deposition in the newly settled lawsuits remains under seal, NBC News reported.

In their joint statement Wednesday, the university and plaintiffs thanked mediators and said they were working to finalize the settlements.