US Supreme Court rebuffs Ohio State University bid to thwart sex abuse suits

By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Ohio State University's bid to dismiss lawsuits brought by alleged sexual abuse victims of a now-deceased doctor who was employed by the school's athletic department and medical staff for nearly two decades.

The justices turned away Ohio State's appeal of a lower court's ruling that allowed the litigation to proceed despite having been brought decades after the abuse by Richard Strauss, which occurred from 1978 to 1998, the year he retired from the faculty. Strauss died by suicide in 2005.

Lawyers for the alleged victims, including the nonprofit Public Justice, hailed the Supreme Court's action.

"We look forward to returning to the trial court, having our clients' stories heard, and gathering further evidence of OSU's widespread cover-up of Dr. Strauss's serial predation," they said in a statement.

"For decades, OSU has attempted to run out the clock on its accountability and protect its reputation through a series of actions aimed at hiding its role in perpetuating the serial sexual abuse that OSU students and others experienced on the university's watch," they added.

Ohio State reached settlement agreements with 296 survivors of Strauss's abuse, totaling more than $60 million, while others continued to pursue their claims in court. Several other major U.S. universities have agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements in recent years to resolve claims made in episodes similar to the one at Ohio State.

At issue in Ohio State's appeal was whether the state of Ohio's two-year statute of limitations for such misconduct began to run at the time of the abuse or decades later when the alleged victims learned that the university was investigating Strauss's misconduct.

Ohio State in 2018 launched an independent investigation led by the law firm Perkins Coie after a former member of the university's men's wrestling team reported to the school that Strauss had abused him decades earlier.

A 2019 report detailing the investigative findings said that Strauss had sexually abused at least 177 men, nearly all of whom were students, and that university staff who knew of the abuse failed to act. The abuse included groping and fondling of the students' genitals and other acts under the guise of a medical examination.

News of the investigation and its findings prompted more than 500 plaintiffs to sue Ohio State, alleging they had been sexually abused by Strauss and that the school had shown deliberate indifference.

A group of 100 plaintiffs, led by former Ohio State student Steve Snyder-Hill, were among those who brought a lawsuit under a 1972 federal law called Title IX of the Education Amendments, which prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools receiving federal funding.

Title IX lawsuits look to state law statutes of limitations but federal courts determine when the clock begins.

A federal judge initially dismissed the Title IX claims as untimely under Ohio's two-year statute of limitations. But the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Court of Appeals last September revived the lawsuits, saying that the claims by the plaintiffs became legally enforceable only "when they knew or had reason to know that Ohio State" had treated their alleged abuse with deliberate indifference.

The ruling also opened the door for certain alleged victims who were not former Ohio State students or employees to sue the school under Title IX.

Ohio State told the Supreme Court in its appeal that allowing the lawsuits to proceed based on the 6th Circuit's ruling would mean "there is essentially no limit on the stale claims that could be brought."

Similar scandals have roiled other major state universities.

The University of Michigan in 2022 finalized a $490 million settlement with more than 1,000 people who alleged sexual assault by a former sports doctor. The University of California system in 2022 agreed to pay $243 million to settle legal claims by about 200 women who accused a former UCLA gynecologist of sexual abuse.

The University of Southern California in 2021 reached a $852 million settlement with more than 700 women who accused a former campus gynecologist of sexually abusing them. Michigan State University in 2018 reached a $500 million settlement with more than 300 women who said they were sexually abused by a gymnastics doctor.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)