Ohio lottery director, accused of inappropriate touching, texts with sexual ‘innuendo,’ resigns
Ohio’s lottery director resigned abruptly after he was found to have inappropriately touched two employees in addition to sending text messages that alluded to sexual intercourse during his employment.
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An independent investigation, looking into the accusations, found that the lottery director sent text messages “expressing inappropriate fondness and innuendo” to his staff members, the report released Friday said, according to AP News.
Pat McDonald, the former lottery director, was under investigation after allegations from an employee accused him of uncomfortably touching and hugging them. The accusations were initially filed February of 2022.
Following the incident, the human resources director informed McDonald that his behavior was unwelcomed, at which point he apologized. The employee was “satisfied that the behavior was addressed and would not continue,” the report informed.
However, a few months later, on April 6, the employee filed another complaint stating that the behavior did not change.
McDonald inappropriately touched two employees on the arms, shoulders and forehead, gave an unwanted hug, sent texts with sexual implications to two employees, and made “verbal comments about the appearance of two employees,” the investigation found.
McDonald frequently texted “I love you,” “I still have a major crush on you,” and “You’re a gift from god to me,” to his coworker. The text messages were also followed by eggplant and heart emojis—the eggplant emoji in particular having sexual implications.
On Saturday, January 21, the then lottery director texted, “People love you—do we want to expand on things? I’d be happy to keep you to myself,” the report said.
The employee did not reciprocate or address any of the comments.
However, in March, the employee confronted McDonald saying, “You cannot take pictures of me. Bottom line,” after he had allegedly taken and kept photos of the employee on his phone. To this, McDonald responded, “I will never do that again but its not illegal.” The employee threatened to resign following the response.
Once the series of allegations were made, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine hired a third-party law firm to investigate the incidents.
During the investigation, the law firm also discovered that the assistant director knew about the inappropriate behavior, but failed to take action. As a result, they were demoted out of a management position and reassigned to a different state agency with a lower classification and pay grade, a spokesperson for Ohio’s Human Resources Division said.
DeWine appointed Michelle Gillcrist, the former aerospace and defense liaison and northeast Ohio regional liaison, to McDonald’s position on an interim basis.
