Ex-employees: Doc in sex abuse inquiry aimed ads at students
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio State University team doctor accused of groping scores of young men decades ago also had an off-campus men’s clinic that was marketed in the campus newspaper with a series of ads promising prompt treatment of genital problems, plus a student discount, according to two former employees.
The ads published in the fall of 1996 labeled it as a “Men’s Clinics of America” and didn’t mention the now-deceased physician, Richard Strauss, but the connection was confirmed by two former nursing students who say they did appointment-booking and other clerical work for Strauss. One of the former students said he was touched inappropriately by Strauss during an exam at the clinic, and he wonders if others were abused there.
The ex-employees describe a bare-bones clinic set up in an office building roughly a mile from campus: Strauss was the only doctor, contrary to the ads. He conducted some exams with no one else present and without wearing gloves. Information on the medical charts was minimal. Ohio State athletes occasionally dropped by for exams. All patients were directed from a waiting area to an exam room that had very little medical equipment, and then to a different exit so they wouldn’t see anyone else afterward, the ex-employees said. One recalls using a cash box to hold payments.
It seemed then to be a real but oddly run part-time business, and it was understandable that patients with potentially embarrassing problems might appreciate privacy and discretion, but the allegations recently raised against Strauss cast it all in a much more suspicious light, the ex-employees said.
