UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO 

EASTERN DIVISION 

BRIAN GARRETT, ET AL, )

 )

 PLAINTIFFS, CASE NO. 2:18-cv-69 ) 2 

 )

vs. ) 

 ) 

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, )

 )

 DEFENDANT. )

__________________________ )

STEVE SNYDER-HILL, ET AL, )

 )

 PLAINTIFFS, CASE NO. 2:18-cv-73 ) 6 

 )

vs. ) 

 ) 

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, )

 )

 DEFENDANT. )

__________________________ )

TRANSCRIPT OF STATUS CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS 

BEFORE THE HONORABLE MICHAEL H. WATSON, JUDGE, AND 

THE HONORABLE ELIZABETH PRESTON DEAVERS, MAGISTRATE JUDGE 

THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2019; 10:15 A.M. 

COLUMBUS, OHIO 

 

FOR THE GARRETT, ET AL PLAINTIFFS: 

 

 Sharp Law 

 By: Rex A. Sharp, Esq. 

 5301 West 75th Street 

 Prairie Village, Kansas 66208 

 Sauder Schelkopf 

 By: Joseph G. Sauder, Esq. 

 555 Lancaster Avenue 

 Berwyn, Pennsylvania 19312 

Case: 2:18-cv-00736-MHW-EPD Doc #: 43 Filed: 01/22/19 Page: 1 of 11 PAGEID #: 696
 

 The Law Offices of Simina Vourlis 

 By: Simina Vourlis, Esq. 

 1689 West 3rd Avenue 

 Columbus, Ohio 43212 

FOR THE SNYDER-HILL, ET AL PLAINTIFFS: 

 

 Landskroner Grieco Merriman, LLC 

 By: Jack Landskroner, Esq. 

 1360 West 9th Street, Suite 200 

 Cleveland, Ohio 44113 

 Scott Elliot Smith LPA 

 By: Scott E. Smith, Esq 

 Brian R. Noethlich, Esq. 

 5003 Horizons Drive, Suite 100 

 Columbus, Ohio 43220 

FOR THE DEFENDANT: 

 Carpenter Lipps & Leland LLP 

 By: Michael H. Carpenter, Esq. 

 David J. Barthel, Esq. 

 Stephen E. Dutton, Esq. 

 Timothy R. Bricker, Esq. 

 280 North High Street, 280 Plaza, Suite 1300 

 Columbus, Ohio 43215 

- - - 

Proceedings recorded by mechanical stenography, transcript 

produced by computer. 

LAHANA DUFOUR, RMR, CRR 

FEDERAL OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER 

85 MARCONI BOULEVARD, ROOM 121 

COLUMBUS, OHIO 43215 

614-719-3286 

Case: 2:18-cv-00736-MHW-EPD Doc #: 43 Filed: 01/22/19 Page: 2 of 11 PAGEID #: 697
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Thursday Morning Session 

January 17, 2019 

- - - 

THE COURTROOM DEPUTY: These are case numbers

218-cv-692, 2:18-cv-736, Brian Garrett, et al and Steve

Snyder-Hill, et al versus the Ohio State University. Counsel,

please enter your appearances.

MR. LANDSKRONER: Jack Landskroner for the plaintiffs

Snyder-Hill.

MR. SMITH: Scott Elliot Smith for the plaintiff Steve

Snyder-Hill. 

MR. NOETHLICH: Brian Noethlich for the plaintiffs

Snyder-Hill.

MS. VOURLIS: Simina Vourlis for the plaintiff

Garrett.

MR. SAUDER: Joe Sauder for the plaintiff Garrett.

MR. SHARP: Rex Sharp for Brian Garrett and the

punitive class.

MR. CARPENTER: For the defendants, Your Honor, Ohio

State University, Mike Carpenter and my colleagues Tim Bricker,

Dave Barthel and Ned Dutton.

THE COURT: I want to start by saying that I, and I

think every member of this bench probably, have at one time or

another served as an adjunct professor of Ohio State. I

currently am teaching. I say that only because if you want to

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take shots, you can take shots. I'm thinking that my intention

is to stay on the case and, nonetheless, I'm letting you know

in case you want to raise something.

The Court does not intend to rule anytime soon on the

motions to stay discovery or the motions to dismiss. The Court

intends that we will mediate these cases and that we will do so

beginning within the next 30 days.

Michael, when is the Perkins Coie investigation

completed?

MR. CARPENTER: I don't know, Your Honor. I am not

involved in that investigation so I have no real timeline or

access to that timeline.

THE COURT: I want to see a copy of the report in

camera as soon as it's available as well as any status updates

that the board has received to date.

This mediation will likely have a number of moving parts

and so I am thinking of the model that was employed in the

Detroit bankruptcy case using a number of different mediators

that I would supervise in the course of mediating these cases.

I know the board chairman, Mike Gasser. He's a man of his

word. He's told the victims that appeared before the board

that, rest assured, the board is not dismissing you. We're

committed to doing the right thing. And the Court intends to

see that the right thing is done here.

I know that Mr. Gasser said at that meeting which I

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believe happened in December but I'm not -- I don't have the

date right at hand, but in any event, he indicated that the

report would be -- the investigation would be over soon and we

look forward to coming up with appropriate responses to action

at that time.

In preparing for this case, the Court has been watching

what's going on in Michigan as well. One might say that there

is -- there have been some fairly embarrassing revelations, I

think, from the lawyer that was appointed to sort of oversee

compliance with the investigation. I think there was a

resignation involved. I want to avoid that. I want to avoid

all of that.

This case needs to be handled in a manner that is worthy

of a great institution and these victims need to be dealt with

as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees has indicated that he

is committed to doing. We will be issuing an order following

our status conference today where we will solicit ideas from

counsel as to individuals who might serve as mediators. We'll

be looking for probably joint recommendations. I am willing to

be edified on the model but the one that comes to mind, as I

say, is the Detroit bankruptcy matter.

I know there's a great deal of -- there are legitimate

questions about the statute of limitations and so I want to ask

counsel. I'm looking for a commitment from the plaintiffs.

You're talking about deliberate indifference from the date that

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the university comes forward and admits that they have this

problem and they are going to conduct this investigation and

that is a date in March or April of 2018; is that correct?

MR. SHARP: That's correct, Your Honor.

MR. LANDSKRONER: That's correct, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Judge Deavers, what do you think?

THE MAGISTRATE JUDGE: We had talked previously about

getting no commitment from the plaintiffs as to the theory of

the case. I think it would be helpful, again, I know

Judge Watson just asked you specifically but because we have

two different cases going on, we want to make sure that both

parties are in lockstep with respect to the theory of the case.

So why don't you again, please, articulate and formulate the

basis of your claims as each of you understands it. Just to

confirm that we are in one unison theory.

MR. SHARP: Your Honor, on behalf of the Garrett

Plaintiffs. This is a Title IX case. We're seeking a claim

against Ohio State University for deliberate indifference in

their inaction with respect to the Strauss victims and

everything that has continued from that point forward. So I

think we are in lockstep in that regard, but I'll let Jack talk

on that issue.

MR. LANDSKRONER: Your Honor, we have been

coordinating as best we can in these cases to try to streamline

our efforts and make sure we're not duplicating efforts. Two

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different claims and class claim individual claims for our

clients, but we are in agreement.

In essence, the claims arise from the question under

Title IX of when Plaintiffs knew that Dr. Strauss's conduct

constituted sexual harassment or abuse and when Plaintiffs knew

specifically that Ohio State University played a role and

contributed to their abuse and injury. And that, we believe,

was instigated with Ohio State's announcement in April, end of

March, early April that they were going to investigate serial

claims of abuse against Dr. Strauss.

THE COURT: How much discovery, if any, have you been

able to do or the investigation that you've done has brought

forward? There's been talk of, in the motion papers, about

speaking with people who were there at the time that may still

be with the university or used to be affiliated with the

university. Put some meat on those bones for me. Who have you

talked to?

MR. LANDSKRONER: Yes, sir. So we have, as we are in

a suit, have not made efforts to speak to employees of the

university because of their position.

THE COURT: Right.

MR. LANDSKRONER: However, we have initiated public

records requests for documents. We have extensively

interviewed, obviously, our clients and others that our clients

could identify that might help us to understand the nature of

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Case: 2:18-cv-00736-MHW-EPD Doc #: 43 Filed: 01/22/19 Page: 7 of 11 PAGEID #: 702
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the complaints and the relation of those complaints to the

university or its staff. But we have not been able to gather

the information that we need. And the purpose of our request

for very limited discovery was, one, to get records that -- our

clients' own records which we provided authorizations for to

the university to counsel so we can have a complete

understanding of their window at Ohio State University if there

is any documentation or what their medical records reflect; we

have asked for information on Dr. Strauss which we've been able

to get through public records request but only in a limited

capacity; we have subpoenaed the medical board for information

from Dr. Strauss. I've received some documentation back there

and understand that there's additional documentation at the

medical board that they cannot release because there were

complaints filed but they were not validated, they were just

simply filed and they can't release that information to us.

So we know there's additional information out there. We

just don't have it.

MR. SHARP: Your Honor, we've done all of the same as

well as attempted to talk to a number of the former higher-ups

at OSU because they are formers, but because they're former

employees or former officers, they have declined for whatever

reason and they're entitled to do that. We cannot force them

without the power of the Court. So we haven't had too much

more luck other than what has been publicly available at this

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Case: 2:18-cv-00736-MHW-EPD Doc #: 43 Filed: 01/22/19 Page: 8 of 11 PAGEID #: 703
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point.

THE COURT: All right. Thank you.

Mr. Carpenter, is there anything that you would like to

add at this point?

MR. CARPENTER: No, Your Honor.

THE COURT: Thank you. Anything further on behalf of

Plaintiffs?

MR. LANDSKRONER: Nothing more from the plaintiffs to

present.

THE COURT: We will be issuing an order following

today's hearing but I'd like you to get your heads together and

come up with some proposed names and we will include that in

the order, to serve as mediators.

MR. LANDSKRONER: Your Honor, I was curious in terms

of procedurally how the government shutdown is affecting you

and whether we should be aware of any procedures you'd like us

to follow under the circumstances.

THE COURT: We will be here. Hopefully we'll get

Washington working again. That would be nice.

MR. SHARP: Your Honor, on behalf of Plaintiffs

Garrett, I also believe that Jack would probably share in this,

we've previously recommended Layn Phillips as a mediator who

handled not only the Michigan State mediation, I know that took

quite a period of time, and also the USC case that was recently

mediated before Judge Layn Phillips. I believe he also has --

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there's a number of mediators within his office. I believe

there's a few that may have gone to Ohio State's law school. I

know that Judge Phillips has been back here at the invitation

of Ohio State to speak on arbitrations and mediations. So we

would recommend him. He may have some ideas on how best to

handle these having actually done them before. But that would

be who we would recommend.

THE COURT: Very good.

MR. LANDSKRONER: We would concur with that, Your

Honor.

MR. CARPENTER: Nothing further to add. We will

confer with our clients and provide that information as

requested by the Court.

THE COURT: Thank you. I appreciate your coming in

today.

(The proceedings were adjourned at 10:30 a.m.)

- - - 

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C E R T I F I C A T E

I, Lahana DuFour, do hereby certify that the foregoing 

is a true and correct transcript of the proceedings before the 

Honorable Michael H. Watson, Judge, and the 

Honorable Elizabeth Preston Deavers, Magistrate Judge, in the 

United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio, 

Eastern Division, on the date indicated, reported by me in 

shorthand and transcribed by me or under my supervision. 

 s/Lahana DuFour 

 Lahana DuFour, RMR, CRR 

 Official Federal Court Reporter 

 January 22, 2019 

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Case: 2:18-cv-00736-MHW-EPD Doc #: 43 Filed: 01/22/19 Page: 11 of 11 PAGEID #: 706