Plaintiffs in Strauss abuse case file motion to recuse federal judge, move cases to Cincinnati

Attorneys representing plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit who have accused the late Ohio State University physician Richard Strauss of abusing them have filed motions in a Columbus federal court to recuse a judge based on a conflict of interest and to move the case to Cincinnati.

The motions, filed late Wednesday evening, are in response to a disclosure made by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson, who has been overseeing the case since 2019. Watson gave plaintiffs in the civil suits until Sunday to request his recusal from their cases, following his disclosure last Friday that his wife’s business was licensed to sell OSU merchandise.

Watson disclosed the licensing agreement to plaintiffs after he was contacted by NBC News with questions about his impartiality, according to a transcript of the session obtained by The Dispatch.

Plaintiffs' attorneys said in the motions that "judicial impartiality is one of the most fundamental elements of the judicial system," but that has been hard to come by in Columbus, home of Ohio State.

Attorneys said based on Watson's wife having a license to sell Ohio State merchandise, the university being a customer of her business, and Watson being employed as an adjunct professor at Ohio State' Moritz College of Law, recusal and a change in venue are necessary.

"But whether the conflict is real or apparent, the fact is that these plaintiffs, who were abused as teenage boys by the combined power of OSU and its team doctor, will never get justice in Columbus ... The victims deserve a level playing field for the first time in their lives," according to the motion. 

Watson had previously disclosed in January 2019 that he served as an adjunct professor at Ohio State, and “no party requested my recusal from the case based on that relationship,” he said to plaintiffs last week.

Watson said in 2019 that "every member of this bench probably, ha[s] at one time or another served as an adjunct professor of Ohio State," according to court records. 

Attorneys said in Wednesday's motion that other federal judges in Columbus have recused themselves when cases involving the university have come to their bench. 

In 2019, investigators hired by Ohio State concluded that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 students between 1979 and his retirement in 1998, and that university personnel repeatedly failed to act. Lawsuits filed since then against the university indicate that the number of victims was much higher. At last count in the university's 2019 crime report, Ohio State reported 1,429 instances of fondling and 47 instances of rape by Strauss.

Ed Vasquez, a spokesman for the law offices representing the plaintiffs, said attorneys for the alleged victims would not be issuing a statement or be available for comment.

"The attached motion speaks for itself," Vasquez said in an email.

shendrix@dispatch.com

@sheridan120