Retired Ohio State wrestling coach Russ Hellickson sought support for Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan from two former wrestlers he coached who accused Jordan of ignoring sexual abuse allegations voiced against a team doctor, according to a published report Wednesday.
Hellickson sent text messages last month to Dunyasha Yetts and Mike DiSabato asking them to support Jordan, NBC News reported. Yetts and DiSabato came forward earlier this year to allege former team doctor Richard Strauss committed sexual abuse and harassment, and said Jordan had knowledge of it when he was an assistant coach at the school between 1986 to 1994 and failed to take action.
“I’m sorry you got caught up in the media train,” Hellickson wrote in a text message to Yetts on July 4. “If you think the story got told wrong about Jim, you could probably write a statement for release that tells your story and corrects what you feel bad about. I can put you in contact with someone who would release it.”
Jordan, who is seeking to succeed retiring Speaker of the House Paul Ryan if the Republicans retain a majority, has said on multiple occasions that he had no knowledge of Strauss’ misconduct while he was assistant coach at Ohio State.
More than 100 former students — including former student-athletes from 14 sports — have told independent investigators hired by Ohio State they were victims of Strauss, the school announced last month. Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005, worked at Ohio State for 20 years, including more than a decade as a team doctor.
Yetts told NBC News last month that he told Hellickson and Jordan about Strauss pulling down his shorts when he sought treatment for a thumb injury. Yetts said Hellickson reached out a day after NBC News' report, first via text and then by phone.
“I told him, 'I’m going to contradict you, coach, because I’m telling the truth,' ” Yetts told Hellickson, per NBC News.
DiSabato said he received similar overtures from Hellickson.
“He said Jimmy was telling him he had to make a statement supporting him and he called to tell me why he was going to make it,” DiSabato told NBC News.
Hellickson was among a group of former wrestling coaches who put out a statement of support for Jordan on July 9.
“At no time while Jim Jordan was a coach with me at Ohio State did either of us ignore abuse of our wrestlers. That is not the kind of man Jim is, and it is not the kind of coach that l was,” Hellickson said in the statement.
