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Lenhoff pleads guilty to 1 count
By MARC KOVAC
COLUMBUS
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Alyssa Lenhoff pleads guilty Monday in a Columbus courtroom to one count of having an unlawful interest in a public contract.
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Alyssa Lenhoff
Investigators have a little less than three weeks to bring misdemeanor criminal charges against former Attorney General Marc Dann, and his wife is the latest individual who has agreed to answer questions and provide testimony, if needed.
Alyssa Lenhoff, who recently filed for divorce from Dann, pleaded guilty Monday in a Columbus courtroom to one count of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, related to a grant application she submitted to the attorney general while her husband was in office.
As part of a plea agreement, she was fined $1,000 and received a 10-day suspended jail sentence, provided she cooperates in future investigations into the scandal that led to Dann’s resignation almost two years ago.
Lenhoff’s conviction was the fourth stemming from the Dann administration, and prosecutors remained mum on whether the former attorney general would face charges.
“This investigation continues, as I think you all know, with the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office and with the Ethics Commission,” said David Freel, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said investigators have until May 14 — the anniversary of Dann’s resignation from office — to bring misdemeanor charges. They would have about four additional years to bring felony charges against the former attorney general.
Lenhoff, journalism director at Youngstown State University, was involved in a grant application seeking funding from the attorney general, while her husband was in office, to pay for a cold-case course, with students investigating unsolved criminal cases.
Lenhoff and her attorney, Sam Shamansky, from Columbus, said Lenhoff would not have received any of the funds.
Lenhoff said she didn’t realize she was breaking the law by being involved in the grant application.
“I didn’t know at the time that it was a problem; I do now, and I’m terribly sorry,” she told reporters Monday.
“There was nothing wrong with Youngstown State or any university soliciting grant funds from the attorney general’s office,” Freel said. “The question was the relationship of the spouse to those grant funds.”
The grant was approved, but Dann reversed the decision and ordered that the check not be awarded to YSU, because of Lenhoff’s position, according to documents.
During Monday’s hearing, Franklin County Municipal Judge Harland H. Hale called Lenhoff an “honorable and decent person” whom he had met while her husband was running for office.
“It gives me no pleasure to have you here Alyssa,” he said. “But I wish you well in your future endeavors. I do think there was a calamity of errors that occurred, that a number of people were in over their heads.”
Lenhoff said she continues to work at YSU.
“I am so happy to be having ... the chance to kind of put everything back and behind me and my children and to kind of move on,” she said.
“I’m really excited about tomorrow and next month and next year. I just hope that this hasn’t brought more embarrassment to my family.”
YSU’s 12-member professional-conduct committee is reviewing the Lenhoff case, said Ron Cole, a university spokesman.
The committee doesn’t have a timetable for when it would make a decision, Cole said.
Lenhoff’s grant issue came to light as part of an investigation by the Ohio Ethics Commission prompted by sexual-harassment allegations brought by two women in the attorney general’s office against Anthony Gutierrez, a manager hand-picked for his position by Dann.
As a result, two of Dann’s aides were fired, and a third was forced to resign. All three have since been convicted of criminal charges.
Gutierrez pleaded guilty in August to six criminal counts as part of a deal with prosecutors. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, served in weekend increments.
Edgar Simpson, Dann’s chief of staff, was fined $1,000 for failing to disclose income on a required state ethics form.
Leo Jennings, Dann’s communications manager, was fined $2,000 for failing to properly file forms and accepting improper compensation while working in the Attorney General’s Office.
Dann has vehemently denied criminal wrongdoing in the case. He earlier was fined by the Ohio Elections Commission for using campaign funds to install a security system at his home and for family travel but avoided a criminal referral in the matter.