Spoliation is the Word of the Day

He is in clear violation of his contract, both the written language and the purported level of ethics the university says it requires of its highly paid coaches.  Urban didn't need to violate the law to be fired.  The language in his contract (USA today said that language was just added in April 2018, if memory serves) gave OSU room to fire for cause and avoid the buyout.  However, they would certainly have been in for the expense and hassle of protracted litigation.  As a Michigan fan I would not have minded them having this off-field distraction; but of course, no one at OSU wanted that.  So they worked out a solution that enabled them to continue with business as usual, although arrogant Meyer had to swallow his pride (and manage to look even worse after the hearings). The suspensions are not something Meyer can litigate, and it's an admission by the university that he did something in violation of his contract.  What they will have to live with is reputation damage that isn't going to go away.  

" I’m not sure what other authorities are supposed to do in this situation.  I don’t think Meyer violated any laws."

Perhaps a "not so fast my friend" moment, in that he is a public employee and even more so if the university (thus the state) paid for his phone (which almost surely they did/do).

This is a great point, it’s almost like they tried to investigate the bare minimum so they wouldn’t unearth more reasons to fire this misogynistic asshole. Apparently it worked to great success(for OSU football and their fans and not for of course, the VICTIM in all of this).

Forget spoliation, Meyer lied, period, about his actions that initiated the university's action against him. He lied to the media in Chicago about what he knew and when he knew it regarding the firing of Smith. And then he lied in his own statement days later claiming whatever he didn't do accurately, he at least followed contractual protocols in vaguely reporting something he claimed no knowledge of days earlier with specific knowledge days later.

And yet, during the mea culpa press conference Wednesday night, Gene Smith discloses to the world at large, that it wasn't Meyer who responded to a police report of an alleged abuse event at the Smith home in 2015, it was Smith who discovered the information and apparently contacted the assistant coach on the road, then notified the head coach of the situation. This is one fucked up set of circumstances in ass-covering storylines.

Here's how fucked up you know that all-day meeting was between the principlals: Nobody at the public meeting was claiming high ground on responsibility except when it where it legally mattered in covering their own legal ass.

Gene Smith made a point of noting that he discovered before Meyer about the alleged incident in 2015 about Zach Smith. And the dumb ass local beat writers who have been lied to repeatedly never challenged a single response. I'm sorry, the people of Columbus and the Buckeye fan base deserve the wretched leadership that serves their interests.

My takeaway from that press conference was that what Meyer didn't know about supervising his own assistant, he didn't want to know, either because of selective memory or because while he knew, others covered up the record to make sure he couldn't be held accountable.

It's amazing that Ohio State was willing to put out a complete public record of the ZS employment experience at their school, and anyone representing that university would claim that he was properly supervised or that in the failure to properly supervise his activities, no violations of any kind resulted.

Wonder if MGoBlog 3.0 still has the separate blog Brian set specially for Section 1 so we didn't have to deal with this bloviating anymore.

Wait a minute!  Where did I excuse anybody's deletion of text messages?  Where did I side with Urban Meyer, or anybody else, on any act of spoliation?  I started my comments on this page by agreeing with the OP!

You know, you could pretty easily make a cogent argument against Zach Smith as an OSU assistant football coach and as a representative of the University if you were more careful about it.   But you (and many, many others) write stuff like, "Courtney Smith...[was] getting the shit beat out of her."

When did THAT happen?  From the written records, and including Courtney's own uncorroborated allegations we know of:

• A 2009 incident, in which Courtney did not press charges and there was no criminal or civil action;
• Nine separate reports from the Powell Police Department, mostly related to child custody disputes, at least one relating to Courtney's lone vehicular stop, and one (in October of 2015) where she alleged some level of domestic abuse, and wherein her most serious claims have been made in recent interviews and were not reflected in police reports at the time, but none of them reflecting anyone "getting the shit beat out of" them;
• The October 25, 2015 arrest of Zach Smith; for which the records clearly show that Courtney Smith had made calls to police before and after the incident, and none of them reflect anybody "getting the shit beat out of" them;
• A traffic stop of Courtney Smith for speeding in 2016, where she appeared to be crying and stated that she was having domestic issues with her (by then) ex-husband;
• An incident in 2017 where Courtney Smith claimed that neighbors observed Zach Smith peering into her windows at home;
• A pair of undated photos showing what appears to be Courtney Smith's reddened arm and a bleeding hand.  Zach Smith explains that the bleeding hand photo occurred when Courtney attempted to make contact with him, and cut her hand on a can of smokeless tobacco.  This may well be a disputed claim of potential seriousness; what did Courtney do about it whenever it happened?  Are the photos part of her divorce file?  Has she ever been cross-examined about it?
• And there is the July, 2018 incident.  For which Zach has been charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass and not, uh, "beating the shit out of" his ex-wife.  And the dispute there is, I think, made fairly clear by Zach's attorney.  The dispute seems to be that Zach was dropping their kids off at their mother's condo, but that she (and Powell Police) claim that there was a "police order" against Zach coming onto that property.  Zach's lawyer says that there is a COURT order for shared custody and that Zach had the right and even the responsibility to deliver the kids to their mother's home.  There may be two -- or more -- sides to that story, and I am looking forward to hearing them all next month in open court.  With lawyers, and a judge, and a court reporter.
• Courtney has recently obtained a personal protection order against Zach; such orders are generally granted on an ex parte basis without cross-examination of all involved parties.  I think that is what happened in this case.  And the restrictive language is almost always the court's boilerplate.  We do it this way because we want to maximize access to such orders on the part of persons who may need them.  And the balance of legal interests goes against the accused.  With the notion that the court can conduct a more detailed hearing later, upon application by the accused.  

And in all of that, there is nothing like Zach "beating the shit out of" anybody.