Gutierrez appears before panel

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Anthony Gutierrez

The former Marc Dann aide also has a criminal case pending in Columbus.

By Marc Kovac

COLUMBUS — Anthony Gutierrez made his case before a state panel Thursday that he should not have to pay workers’ compensation costs for four workers at his home- remodeling business.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has taken the opposite position as part of the legal actions against the man hand-picked by Marc Dann to serve as general-services director and who played a central role in the scandal that led to the former attorney general’s resignation last year.

Gutierrez appeared before a Bureau of Workers’ Compensation committee in Columbus that will determine whether he should have to pay restitution of up to $6,700 in the case.

The panel will announce its decision within the next week.

Gutierrez was indicted earlier this year on 10 criminal counts that carried potential penalties of eight years in prison and $20,000 in fines.

In August, Gutierrez pleaded guilty to six of those counts as part of a deal with prosecutors. He admitted using state property and employees to operate his private construction company, improperly receiving money from Dann’s campaign account and filing inaccurate information on state disclosure and Bureau of Workers’ Compensation filings.

The charges carry a prison sentence of up to four years and fines up to $9,000, and sentencing is set for next month in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus.

Prosecutors, as part of the plea agreement, have recommended 45 days in jail, served in 15-day increments.

Thursday’s hearing focused on whether workers hired by Gutierrez were employees or subcontractors. The former would have required filings with the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and payments to the state to cover costs if workers were injured on the job — which Gutierrez’s MTV Construction did not pay.

An investigation by the bureau and the state inspector general identified workers who received weekly paychecks and were paid on an hourly basis.

“We felt that those people would be considered employees,” said Craig Matthews, a BWC fraud investigator.

But Keith Schneider, legal counsel for Gutierrez, argued that the bureau had not proved the four workers in question met the state’s definition of employee. Under Ohio law, workers must meet at least 10 of 20 criteria to be considered employees for workers’ compensation purposes.

“In no instance did I ever get more than eight,” Schneider said, adding, “In order to hold employers, in my opinion, accountable for a violation of miscategorization, under the statute, 10 items have to be identified, and they simply aren’t.”

Dann resigned after a scandal that was prompted by allegations by two office employees of sexual harassment against Gutierrez. An internal investigation substantiated the complaints and prompted the firing of Gutierrez and Leo Jennings, the forced resignation of a third and a legislated investigation by the state’s inspector general.