OH- Dann's office benefited family, report says

12-25-2008 Ohio:

You can say this much about Marc Dann: He took care of his family.

As attorney general, Dann had his children chauffeured by state agents in state cars, took them on rides in the state plane, arranged family vacations around legal conferences and let his wife make key personnel decisions, including ones that led to Dann's undoing, according to investigative documents released this week.

Dann resigned May 14 in a hastily arranged news conference, accompanied only by adopted daughter Mavilya Chubarova.

But an exhaustive investigation of his 17 months in office, headed by Inspector General Thomas P. Charles and made public Monday, showed that Dann's entire family was immersed in the attorney general's office to an unusual degree. And family members -- wife Alyssa Lenhoff, daughters Jessie Dann and Chubarova and son Charlie Dann -- were willing or unwilling participants in many of the events that precipitated scandals in the office.

It began with the January 2007 hiring of Anthony Gutierrez, a neighbor of the Dann family near Youngstown. Gutierrez and his wife, Lisa, were friends with Dann and Lenhoff; their children played together.

The attorney general's office hired Gutierrez to a key management position even though he had been hit with numerous tax liens and at least one drunken-driving conviction that Dann knew about.

More than a year later, Gutierrez was the target of sexual-harassment charges that ballooned into a full-blown scandal that forced Dann to admit mismanagement and his own affair with an underling.

Although Dann and Gutierrez were friends, Gutierrez credited Dann's wife with landing him the $87,500-a-year job in the attorney general's office.

"I'm not sure if Marc wanted me here or anything else, but really, you know, I believe (Lenhoff) really pushed me," Gutierrez told investigators, according to transcripts released this week. "She helped me do my resume. She helped me with my on-line application."

In a phone interview Wednesday, Lenhoff didn't deny that she went to bat for Gutierrez.

"I foolishly now deeply regret suggesting to Marc that I thought Tony would be good," she said.

Lenhoff also recommended her former newspaper boss, Edgar C. Simpson, who became Dann's top administrator despite no experience beyond journalism. Simpson was forced out when the sexual-harassment scandal revealed numerous management lapses.

Gutierrez and others interviewed by the inspector general said Lenhoff was deeply involved in the operations of the attorney general's office. Lenhoff denied that, saying the suggestion smacks of sexism.

Dann, 46, and Lenhoff, 45, have been married since 1987. A former investigative reporter, Lenhoff directs the journalism program at Youngstown State University, runs an Internet-based tableware business and serves on the board of the Liberty Local Schools. Dann's first elected office was on the same board.

The inspector general's report said Lenhoff's tableware business, Zesty Dishes, got $12,263 from an account Dann had set up for his transition to office. Lenhoff got a $9,955 personal check from the same fund that ended up in the couple's personal bank account, according to the report.

In the phone interview, Lenhoff said the payments to her business were for more than 400 gifts and gift baskets for campaign supporters and that Zesty Dishes realized no profit.

The couple's children also benefited from the trappings of Dann's office, according to the inspector general. Their two younger children, Jessie, now 14, and Charlie, now 17, received campaign-paid cell phones, as did Lenhoff, the report said. Chubarova got a job in the office of Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who like Dann is a Democrat.

Charlie Dann practiced for his driver's license test in a state vehicle with on-duty agents from the attorney general's Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation. Jessie Dann and her friends went to a Miley Cyrus concert in Cleveland in a state vehicle driven by bureau agents, the report said. Jessie also accompanied her father on the state plane.

The family also took vacations in California, Arizona and Utah that were built around conferences or other attorney general business, with Dann's campaign account picking up thousands of dollars in travel expenses, according to the inspector general. Dann has since reimbursed expenses relating to his children.

The family's Youngstown-area home underwent $40,610 in security improvements, paid for by Dann's campaign account, which the inspector general said was intended to add value to the home.

Dann and Lenhoff defended some of those items and disputed others. Lenhoff said Jessie got official protection because a pedophile had threatened her. Dann said Jessie's travel on the state plane didn't create any extra cost.

Lenhoff said the family's security bubble was a burden more than anything.

"In no way was it a perk at all," she said. "It was a huge, huge, bizarre inconvenience." ..News Source.. by James Nash, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH