Nick Nutter, an all-American wrestler in the 1990s and former Ohio State University wrestler, says he believes Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, was unaware of allegations of sexual abuse when he was assistant coach.
In an interview with The Hill, Nutter said the lawmaker was not the type of person with whom you would discuss those allegations.
"Jim Jordan was almost intimidatingly a goody two-shoes," Nutter told The Hill. "I never heard the man cuss. If I was near him, I would never even say the word penis because I would hate for him to judge me and think I'm a sinner and deviant."
"Of all people, he is the guy I would never, ever tell. Because, one, I'm embarrassed, and two, I wouldn't want him to think I'm a deviant person."
OSU in April launched an independent investigation into the sex abuse allegations against Richard Strauss, the team doctor who killed himself in 2005, and whether enough was done to protect the students.
Nutter told The Hill they had a nickname for Strauss: "Dr. Jelly Paws."
Strauss, Nutter said, would make excuses to grope his genitalia — such as "checking his lymph nodes" — even when he would go in with a broken finger.
"He made up an excuse," Nutter told The Hill. "I was young and naive, and was like 'OK, who am I to question a doctor?'"
Nutter told The Hill on one occasion, Strauss told him to come to his residence after he contracted poison ivy — and the doctor ended up fondling him while he laid naked on the bed.
"Before I went to his house, I told my roommates, 'If I'm not back in three hours, come look for me,'" Nutter said.
Jordan, who has denied he knew about the allegations of abuse, has called the timing of those accusations "suspicious."
And Nutter charged that one of the initial accusers, former Ohio State wrestler Mike DiSabato, has a criminal record and a "vendetta" against both the school and Jordan's family, The Hill reported.
Fourteen other wrestlers have also gone on the record to refute claims Jordan knew or must have known that student athletes were allegedly being abused by Strauss in the 1980s and 90s.
Nutter said he decided to come forward with his allegations of abuse, detailing them in an email to the law firm conducting the investigation after DiSabato encouraged former Buckeye wrestlers to come forward with their stories earlier this year.
"I was under the assumption we were going to release this, and it was going to be about the inappropriateness of Doctor Strauss, but it's turned into a manhunt on Jim Jordan," Nutter told The Hill. "This is not what I signed up for."
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