Ohio State to pay almost $41 million to 162 alleged sexual assault victims of university doctor
Ohio State University will pay $40.9 million to 162 men who accused former university doctor Richard Strauss of sexually assaulting them.
The settlement covers victims in 12 of the 23 lawsuits the university was facing related to Strauss, Ohio State announced in a press release. Strauss himself cannot be sued, having died by suicide in 2005.
More than 300 men said that Strauss “sexually assaulted, abused, battered, molested, and/or harassed” them between 1979 and 1997, a period spanning almost the entirety of Strauss’s career at the university. During that time, he worked as team doctor for 17 different varsity sports and also as a physician at the university’s health center.
A 2019 investigation found that Strauss had abused at least 177 students and that Ohio State officials did not properly respond to the reports of sexual assault.
“The university of decades ago failed these individuals — our students, alumni and members of the Buckeye community,” university president Michael V. Drake said in the release. “Nothing can undo the wrongs of the past, but we must do what we can today to work toward restorative justice.”
Former Ohio State wrestler Mike DiSabato, one of the first men to publicly accuse Strauss of the assault, was one of the 162 people who signed the settlement, the Associated Press reported.
An independent “special master” will divvy up the $40.9 million, according to the press release. The university said no tuition, taxpayer or donor money will be used to pay out the settlement.
