AP source: Ex-Ohio AG who quit after harassment scandal to plead guilty to ethics charges

AP source: Ex-Ohio AG to plead to ethics charges

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The former Ohio attorney general who resigned after a sexual harassment scandal was expected to plead guilty to ethics violations Friday involving improper payments to staff from campaign and office transition funds, The Associated Press has learned.

Marc Dann, who won an improbable election victory to become the state’s top law enforcement official in 2007 only to be forced out after 16 months in office, will appear in Franklin County Municipal Court to enter the pleas, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been formally filed.

The first charge involves campaign funds Dann allegedly gave to two former aides to pay rent and utilities for a condominium in northwest Columbus and a residence in a neighborhood north of downtown Columbus, the source said. The charge also involves a $5,000 loan Dann made from his elected office’s transition account to one of those aides.

The second charge alleges Dann knowingly filed a false financial disclosure form.

Dann told the AP in an e-mail Thursday that he could not comment.

The charge involving the campaign and transition funds is similar to one already used to prosecute the aides, Leo Jennings and Anthony Gutierrez.

Gutierrez, who ran Dann’s general services office, pleaded guilty in August to six charges including theft in office and unauthorized use of state property. He acknowledged taking room and board for a Columbus apartment from a Dann political account.

Gutierrez also admitted to accepting an unreported $5,000 loan from the political account Dann used to handle his transition to office in 2007.

Leo Jennings, Dann’s one-time communications chief, pleaded guilty in March to accepting more than $15,000 in supplemental income from the committees and for funneling money to Gutierrez for rent on a condominium.

Dann, a former Youngstown lawyer and Democratic state senator, was elected in 2006 as part of a Democratic sweep of four of five statewide offices. He beat former Attorney General Betty Montgomery, who was trying to win back her position after serving as state auditor for four years. Montgomery, a popular Republican, was historically the top vote-getter in statewide elections.

Dann admitted having an affair with a subordinate and later resigned in May 2008 following a sexual harassment scandal in his office.

At the time the scandal became known, Jennings and Gutierrez were sharing the condo with Dann. Investigations found evidence that the three men hosted young female staffers on the premises, sometimes for alcohol-laced pizza parties. One of the alleged harassment incidents took place there.