Judge orders former Ohio State University president to be deposed in the Strauss abuse cases

A federal judge has ordered the deposition of former Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee in a lawsuit tied to the alleged abuse by former university doctor Richard Strauss, and a Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that he wants to investigate another former Ohio State president and JobsOhio.

In his ruling, Judge Michael Watson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted a motion to order Gee to be deposed in the case within 30 days.

Gee served as the university’s 11th president from 1990 to 1998 and its 14th president from 2007 to 2013, returning to Ohio State for the last time in August 2025 for a one-year term, according to 10WBNS. Gee’s first presidential term overlapped with Strauss’s work at the university from 1978 to 1998.

An independent university investigation revealed that Strauss allegedly sexually abused at least 177 male students.

According to 10 WBNS, Steve Snyder-Hill, the lead plaintiff in the case, alleged that the university officials told the State Medical Board to keep the Strauss investigation confidential while Gee was president.

“He needs to answer questions. When the media spoke to him a couple of years ago, he was apologetic and admitted his administration’s failures. When asked about it in the current day, he calls it ‘cancel culture.’ The only thing that has changed is that he is back on OSU’s payroll. So he needs to be deposed under oath so we don’t get two versions of Gee,” Snyder-Hill said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Ohio Attorney General candidate John Kulewicz publicly asked the Ohio Inspector General’s office to investigate JobsOhio and another former Ohio State University President, Ted Carter, according to WOSU Public Media.

The news source reported that Kulewicz is concerned that Carter may have abused his position while working with the private nonprofit JobsOhio to support a business owned by podcaster Krisanthe Vlachos.

“Reporting has shown that Vlachos obtained a contract from WOSU (a subsidiary of Ohio State) and that JobsOhio sponsored four of her podcasts for $60,000. This is highly unusual for an upstart podcast, specifically one that was not garnering much audience or attention, which could suggest that inappropriate, wasteful, fraudulent, or payments were made under the guise of a podcast sponsorship,” Kulewicz wrote in his complaint.

During his interview with WOSU Public Media, Kulewicz said he has been concerned about the alleged fraud happening at JobsOhio from the start.

“That creates an environment for mischief. I see something like this happening, and it just makes me wonder what else is going on there,” he said. “I thought it was necessary to ask the Inspector General to look into this because if JobsOhio is giving out contracts like this, then what else is it doing?”

Ohio.News contacted Kulewicz’s opponents in the race, Democratic Elliot Forhan, a former state representative and Cleveland attorney, and Republican Keith Faber, Ohio Auditor of State, as well as current Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, but didn’t receive a response from them.