Wife of ex-Ohio AG pleads guilty to trying to use his office to get $6,500 university grant

Wife of ex-Ohio AG pleads guilty to ethics charge

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The estranged wife of former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has pleaded guilty to a state ethics charge accusing her of trying to use her husband’s position to secure state funding for the university where she works.

As part of a plea deal, Alyssa Lenhoff was fined $1,000 Monday and sentenced to 10 days in jail. She will not have to serve the jail stint if she cooperates with the state on further investigations of Dann’s office.

Prosecutors say she improperly sought a $6,500 grant from Dann’s office for the Youngstown State University journalism program she directs.

Lenhoff says she didn’t know the request was improper.

She filed for divorce this month, two years after Dann acknowledged an affair with an employee in a scandal that prompted his resignation.