Is mess meant to warn?

By David Skolnick

One of the women accusing a high-level staffer in the attorney general’s office of sexual harassment returned to work to find her desk ransacked, her attorneys said.

Cindy Stankoski, 26, of New Albany, an administrative assistant, came to work Wednesday after a short vacation “to find her desk cluttered and mail strewn about her desk and floor. Items in containers had been removed from her desk and some of her mail had even been opened,” said Rex H. Elliott, her co-counsel along with John Camillus.

The two Columbus-based lawyers also represent Vanessa Stout, 26, of Dublin, formerly of Masury. Stout, who also works as an administrative assistant, and Stankoski have accused Anthony Gutierrez, 50, of Liberty, of sexually harassing them.

Gutierrez, the office’s director of general services and a longtime friend of Attorney General Marc Dann, is on paid leave. Gutierrez supervised the two women.

The results of an internal investigation by the attorney general’s office is to be released Friday. Camillus said the attorney general’s office is permitting him and Elliott to “get a sneak preview” at the report before it’s given to the media.

Elliott wrote in a letter to Ben Espy, the executive assistant attorney general leading the investigation, that the incident “is a clear act by someone intending to send a message loud and clear to them that their honesty and candor about the conduct of those employed in the attorney general’s office will not go unpunished.”

Stankoski’s desk, left in order when she went on vacation late last week, is in an open area, Camillus said.

“There’s nothing missing of note and no threatening letter left, but she found [her desk ransacked] to be threatening nonetheless,” he said. “We’re concerned about the intimidation factor.”

Ted Hart, the office’s deputy communications director, said the matter is being taken seriously. The incident is being investigated by security at the Rhodes Tower, where the attorney general’s office is located, as well as by the office, Hart said. The incident also will be turned over to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, he said.

“It’s a matter that concerns us, and we’ll get to the bottom of that,” Hart said.

Charlie Rosol, the office’s deputy director of general services, asked employees if they knew anything about the incident, but no one told him anything about it, Camillus said.

In addition to an investigation, Camillus said the office should install security cameras in the work area.

“Cindy and Vanessa are entitled to work in an office free of harassment, intimidation and retaliation,” Elliott wrote to Espy.

Besides Gutierrez, the office also suspended Leo Jennings III, its communications director, with pay. Dann’s office won’t discuss the reasons for suspending Jennings, 52, of Poland, except to say it’s related to the sexual harassment investigation.

Gutierrez, Jennings and Dann, a Liberty Democrat, shared a Dublin condominium from February to December 2007. The three are longtime friends.

Stankoski said she was pressured to go out drinking with Gutierrez on Sept. 10 and woke up on his bed next to him after falling asleep. Stankoski said she went to the condo at the invitation of Dann to eat pizza.

Stout, who lives across the street from the condo, said she went there a few times.

Though Stout said she never felt threatened there, she told Angie Smedlund, the office’s Equal Employment Opportunity officer, that the three men “all drank a lot” and “all are pigs.”

Gutierrez met Stout shortly after a state-owned vehicle he was driving hit the truck of Stout’s father Aug. 15.

skolnick@vindy.com