Animal House - Columbus Style

A Dispatch article on Animal House aka the AG's office.

Much of the time, Dann's married, high-level aides -- and sometimes the 46-year-old attorney general himself -- were accompanied in their nights on the town by younger, female staffers.

Some of the partying went on at the Dublin-area condo that, at the time, was shared by Dann and two longtime friends from Youngstown: Anthony Gutierrez, general services director, and Leo Jennings III, communications director.

Both Gutierrez and Jennings, who initially denied that staffers ever socialized at the condo, have been suspended with pay in connection with sexual-harassment complaints filed by two 26-year-old women Gutierrez supervised.

The complaints have opened a window into an office culture very unlike what is known of the buttoned-up state law offices headed by Democrat Dann's predecessors, Republicans Jim Petro and Betty D. Montgomery.

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On the night of Monday, Sept. 10 last year, Gutierrez pressured Stankoski to go out with him for a drink, she claims. At three different Downtown bars, he drank chilled shots of Crown Royal whiskey and ordered Grey Goose vodka for her.

Later, after Gutierrez took her to the condo, she said she saw the attorney general there with Utovich -- as well as tequila, margarita mix and boxes of pizza.

Gutierrez appeared to like drinking more than most. In 2006, he had a drunken-driving arrest and Dann, then a state senator running for attorney general, picked up his longtime friend and neighbor and took him home.

At work, Gutierrez showed up one morning after a rough night of drinking looking, in Stankoski's words, like a "hot mess.

"The few hairs on his head were standing up, he reeked of booze and vomit and boogers or vomit were hanging from his nose."

Niiiiiiiiiiiice........I think we should give Dann a good Animal House type name. Let's call him Otter.