COLUMBUS, Ohio _ A former Ohio State University wrestler told an Ohio House committee this week that U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan is trying to cover up his knowledge of sex abuse by the former team doctor.
Several former student athletes at Ohio State have come forward as victims of Dr. Richard Strauss, a former team doctor accused of sexually assaulting athletes in the mid-1990s. Strauss killed himself in 2005.
Jordan, an assistant coach at the time who is now a Republican Ohio congressman, has said he had no knowledge of the abuse at the time, but Adam DiSabato said he told then-Coach Russ Hellickson and Jordan about Strauss.
"They did nothing. They told me they went to their superiors. They told me to ignore it," Adam DiSabato told the House Civil Justice Committee as it considered a bill that would exempt Strauss' victims from the statute of limitations on suing Ohio State.
Adam DiSabato's brother Mike DiSabato has been an outspoken critic of the university's handling of the Strauss allegations.
During his testimony, Adam DiSabato said that Jordan pleaded with him not to back up his brother's claims.
"Jim Jordan called me crying _ crying, groveling on the Fourth of July, begging me to go against my brother. Begging me. Crying for a half-hour _ that's the kind of cover-up that's going on there," he said.
Jordan's spokesman Ian Fury said Adam DiSabato's testimony is "another lie."
"Congressman Jordan never saw or heard of any abuse, and if he had, he would have dealt with it," Fury said in a prepared statement.
Jordan has said repeatedly that he did not know about the sexual abuse by Strauss at the time.
An unidentified wrestling referee said in a lawsuit filed last fall that he told the same two OSU coaches _ Jordan and Hellickson _ of an incident with Strauss in the shower, but the two did nothing.
Adam DiSabato testified that he told George Pardos, another former wrestler, to tell Jordan to stop calling him.
Pardos told NBC News that that "is not an accurate description of what happened," but on Thursday he told The Dispatch that he was receiving calls from several wrestlers in July 2018 about the allegations. Adam DiSabato was "upset" because others were encouraging him to speak out.
"At that point, everybody was calling me. If he thinks he said it, he said it," Pardos said.
Pardos defended Jordan, though, saying that coaches in other sports have been let off the hook while Jordan has been vilified. The real culprit is Ohio State, Pardos said.
Pardos said of Jordan: "He's not going to sit there and let this happen. He wouldn't stand idly by."
Adam DiSabato has not returned Dispatch calls seeking comment. He told legislators that he wrestled at Ohio State from 1988 to 1993, was a team captain, and was inducted into the OSU sports hall of fame in 2006.
Adam DiSabato said that complaints about Strauss were taken to then-athletic director Andy Geiger and Archie Griffin, then an assistant director. But neither did anything, he testified: "We weren't football. We weren't making money."
Adam DiSabato said the coaches told wrestlers that their "superiors" were fine with the situation and to "keep our mouths shut."
"We were told to shut up and not touch anybody that bugged us, just not Strauss, but others that congregated in the open atmosphere they kept us in, open showers. ... Homosexuals gathered to prey on us, and we were not moved," he said.
Again referring to Jordan, Adam DiSabato said: "He's throwing us under the bus, all of us. He's a coward. He's a coward. He's not a leader, he's a coward. I'm a leader. I was captain of those guys. ... He abandoned us. ... He called other people to flip their story.
"Jim Jordan, if I ever see him, he better not come around me, I guarantee you that."
Adam DiSabato also spoke of his personal emails regarding Ohio State vanishing, and of unusual occurrences on Facebook, such as "five different people who vanished."
"I'm not stupid. I know who did it. We all know who did it," he said. "I fought for this university. This university's not fighting for me. It's your job to fight for me now."
