The internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office took hundreds of hours to complete and topped $40,000, documents released by the agency show.
Included is almost $30,000 in salaries and benefits for the 23 people interviewed and the four people in charge of the investigation, and nearly $15,000 to Professional Reporters Inc., the company hired to record the interview sessions.
The information shows the two women who made the allegations, Cindy Stankoski and Vanessa Stout, were interviewed for almost eight hours, while the man they accused, fired General Services Director Anthony Gutierrez, was questioned for about three hours.
Three others without jobs in the wake of the investigation: Leo Jennings, fired communications director; and Edgar Simpson, who resigned as chief of staff; both were questioned for more than two hours; and Marc Dann spoke with interviewers for more than an hour.
The woman he admitted having an affair with, his former travel coordinator Jessica Utovich, was interviewed for nearly two hours.
In total, top legal assistants Ben Espy, Julie Pfeiffer and two other employees worked the case for more than 500 hours, the documents show.
These numbers do not include the ongoing outside investigation into the office by the Ohio Inspector General’s Office, which given the power to perform the probe a day before Dann stepped down. Impeachment proceedings against Dann had begun, but stopped when he left office May 14.
In another wrinkle, a state-owned Blackberry belonging to an employee involved in the investigation has been reported stolen from the employee’s downtown Columbus home.
Jennifer Urban, assistant attorney general, reported to Columbus police that someone took the device from her home in the early morning of May 15 — a day after Dann left and two days into the Inspector General’s investigation — while she was on the back patio and while another person was sleeping on the couch.
Both told police they didn’t hear anything, the report shows.
She also told police a $1,400 television was missing. She told police the person got in the home through an unlocked door, the report shows.
On April 11, Urban sent Dann a text message saying Jennings had tried to coax her to lie to investigators. Jennings was suspended the following Monday and later fired.
Gov. Ted Strickland has yet to announce a replacement for Dann, nor has he indicated whether that person would be the same person to run against a Republican in a special election for the seat in November. The winner in the fall would complete the rest of Dann’s term, which ends in 2010.
rselak@tribune-chronicle.com
