Investigators focus on Dann and wife

Despite former Attorney General Marc Dann’s insistence that he and his wife did nothing wrong, it appears they will likely face criminal charges.

Those investigating Dann and Alyssa Lenhoff, his wife, aren’t letting up.

The convictions last week of Leo Jennings III, Dann’s former communications director and political adviser, and Edgar C. Simpson, Dann’s former chief of policy and administration, show investigators are turning up the heat.

What is blacked out in Simpson’s investigation report by the Ohio Ethics Commission is as interesting as what is included. The commission blacks out information about people they’re investigating who haven’t yet been charged with crimes.

On Page 11 of Simpson’s 39-page report, there’s a category called “complicity in having an unlawful interest in a public contract/conflict of interest.” There is one paragraph with names blacked out followed by nearly 27 pages under that category that are blacked out.

Complicity

But on Page 3 there is a sentence that spells out the complicity and conflict of interest.

“In addition, the investigation revealed that Simpson used the authority and influence of his position to aid and abet Alyssa Lenhoff, wife of the attorney general, in seeking and obtaining grant funds from the office of attorney general on behalf of her employer, Youngstown State University.”

The investigation contends Simpson and Lenhoff improperly sought a $6,500 grant from the AG’s office to fund a “cold case’ course at YSU in which Lenhoff — the university’s journalism director — would be an instructor.

In response, Lenhoff wrote that she was “not aware of ever doing anything that violates any law.”

Dann added that “neither Alyssa nor I did anything inappropriate, let alone illegal.”

In Jennings report, it states that he “acknowledged under oath that, through conversations with Marc Dann, the two of them had reached an agreement that if Jennings accepted a position with the attorney general’s office, Dann would [in some manner] ‘provide for’ Jennings’ housing while in Columbus.”

Dann’s campaign covered the rent of a Columbus-area condominium that Jennings shared with Dann and Anthony Gutierrez, Dann’s general services director.

Jennings pleaded guilty last week to “improper compensation” from two Dann campaign funds and for filing a false financial-disclosure report.

Dann insists “all campaign expenditures that I had any role in authorizing were legitimate and legal.”

But the ethics commission and the Franklin County prosecutor’s office aren’t buying it.

Gutierrez, Simpson and Jennings are cooperating and that can’t be good for Dann and Lenhoff.

If misdemeanors are to be filed, that must be done by May 14, two years after Dann resigned as attorney general. There is a six-year statute of limitations on felony charges.

One interesting bit of information on Jennings from his investigation report. While Jennings made six-figures annually as Dann’s communications director and received more than $75,000 from Dann’s campaign funds, he couldn’t afford to pay a $250 fine in June 2009 to the ethics commission for filing a late report.