Gene Smith may have violated state law by deleting texts
Love that this soap opera will not die. Can only hope that Drake regrets everyday the mistake he made by retaining these clowns.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
Meh. So Gene Smith "routinely" breaks the law.
What else is new?
September 19th, 2018 at 2:03 PM ^
No guy, it’s dead...you and posts like this are what keep trying to resuscitate the bullshit for everyone.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^
its so dead that the WSJ is publishing articles about it
September 19th, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
Are you sad?
September 19th, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^
What "bullshit" do you speak of exactly?
September 19th, 2018 at 2:19 PM ^
Bullshit is the wrong wrong word, garbage is more suitable. It’s just the same thing over and over. I suppose it’s therapeutic to many to take out frustration of our lack of success by repeatedly pointing and saying “LOOK! Ohio State is morally bankrupt and dirty” But it’s like getting on here daily and telling people to drive a hybrid because the ozone is deteriorating. First of all, no shit....and secondly, if you can’t fix it, which we can’t, then what is the new news? They did a shitty investigation. If you can even call it an investigation. So what’s the revelation?
September 19th, 2018 at 2:31 PM ^
There is no "our frustration" with you because you are an OSU troll. Fuck you and your corrupt football program.
September 19th, 2018 at 7:51 PM ^
Lol, ok guys. Ya got me...lol, I’ll excuse myself from the echo chamber..Take care.
September 19th, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^
Take luck. And care for it
September 19th, 2018 at 2:51 PM ^
Ah, so you're an OSU concern troll. Got it.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^
I am not going to call it "great" because no concern trolling is, but this is closer to top shelf concern trolling than we normally get around here, so I'll give you that.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
u wish it were dead. keep praying u nervous bird
September 19th, 2018 at 3:44 PM ^
Sorry that I care about public figures (whose salary I help to pay as a resident of Ohio) knowingly broke the law and did so to potentially protect a wife-beater coach and his superior.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^
While we're on this subject again, I had been thinking, and I wanted to run this thought by y'all. Urban is claiming he didn't delete any texts in response to the incident. Let's use a LOT of mental power and assume Urban... is... telling... the truth. *big breath* (WOW! That did take a lotta mental power!) Does it even matter if he didn't delete texts? He still knew or should have known about the DV and didn't report it.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:18 PM ^
Who was he supossed to report it to? The police? They were already investigating.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:34 PM ^
1.compliance
2.only competent opinions please
September 20th, 2018 at 10:41 PM ^
He was supposed to report it to the OSU Title IX coordinator, as required by US law, OSU regulations, and his own contract. The whole purpose of all of those directives was to prevent exactly the sort of corrupt investigation Meyer and Gene Smith carried out. They could not have been in more flagrant violation of their obligations if they tried.
September 19th, 2018 at 4:51 PM ^
Then prove it. Spend 30 minutes with some forensic tools and look at the settings/configuration log to see the date the settings of texts were deleted.
Very very very easy to exonerate Urban or to find him in another lie.
But if you're OSU, why do that? The negative, he lied again, could potentially get him fired. Not looking at all allows him to keep his job.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
So, who can even jump in and do anything about this travesty of justice?
September 19th, 2018 at 2:19 PM ^
I can't believe he turned in phone with no texts and tried to play it off like it was no big deal. LOL
September 19th, 2018 at 2:53 PM ^
Well, was it a big deal? Meyer got off scot-free by erasing potential evidence. Smith might - MIGHT - get caught afoul of some arcane state law or records retention policy that may slap his wrist. Nothing more will come of it, other than a continued poor public perception. And that won't have one iota of impact on the OSU football machine.
There's a reason the saying says that crime pays. I believe karma will catch up eventually, but when is the only relevant question now.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:20 PM ^
Public records and access laws aren't arcane but they are only pursued by a press association or media organization with an actual desire to uncover truth and meaning.
There is no interest in local media to pursue this story and the unturned stones in The Ohio State case.
The school, as you can see, went to great lengths to spend a lot of money giving the appearance of a strong internal investigation. And to the credit of the investigators, they did a pretty thorough job without pushing the envelope of autonomy, because the school didn't want to find anything it couldn't handle or spin.
But you have loose ends, like not challenging employees who failed to fully cooperate with investigators and taking steps to sabotage evidence.
And let's be clear, the coach was pissed he was forced into a suspension of any kind. That's abundantly evident. Meyer was embarrassed that he was suspended, not because of what he did, but just because the school took that action against him. Essentially, he didn't think he did anything wrong except may be not properly supervise an employee who embarrassed the university in ways that are humiliatingly incredible.
The school will never own up to following through on the questions left unresolved in this scandal unless someone forces the issue, but I guarantee you this will not go away anytime soon.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:42 PM ^
I doubt anyone ever forces anyone's hand beyond what's already happened. I do however hope that this ongoing issue is a problem for Urban & OSU. Maybe he will eventually resign. I don't think his ego can handle not being well thought of.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:42 PM ^
"No big deal" meaning that it is a completely normal thing that a person does. I wasn't even referring to the legality.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:23 PM ^
Not to worry. They will modify the state law next week.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
This is Urban Meyer disguised as Judge Dredd.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:47 PM ^
I AM THE LAW!
September 19th, 2018 at 5:05 PM ^
Indeed you are, Vlad.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^
Oh how I hate Ohio State. I'm excited that our line might be getting better. I want to beat OSU and MSU to shut those guys the hell up. I'm sick of moral superiority. Harbaugh is a competitor. He will get us back there.
It's too bad OSU's only other tough game before us is PSU. I was looking forward to whole student sections wearing "wife beater" t-shirts and other borderline classless trolling. I'd think PSU would want to avoid bringing stuff like that up and it won't matter at the other schools.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:02 PM ^
WSJ story points out it's not an "independent" investigation when the people being investigated are paying the bills for it.
I thought at first they were a step up from East Lansing.... nah, not so much.
EDIT: and LOL Gene Smith for handing over a phone with zero messages on it. It was as pure as the driven snow! No fool, he.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:32 PM ^
Worse yet, is the timeline of response. Both Meyer and Smith were directed by the school's head counsel's office to turn over their Ohio State account phones. Yet, they didn't respond to that investigative request until it suited them.
The NY Times had previously reported on the Jo White report that they never turned their phones in. In any case, no forensics investigation was conducted to determine the level of data on their phones or what may have been deleted.
Now, you may ask why they did this, and the reason is fairly straightforward, they didn't want to get caught in explaining timeline information they couldn't explain. Which underscores, by the way, why Meyer has never talked to his wife about the alleged text message or email correspondence with Courtney Smith.
In every instance, Meyer was caught in a lie. And phone records would have documented a number of them.
He could never claim with any credibility that he doesn't tolerate domestic abuse if he were to acknowledge in any way that he had some inkling of information about that correspondence between his wife and Courtney Smith. Because of the Me Too# movement, It would have sunk him in the trustee debate, even at The Ohio State University, where appearance is everything.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:10 PM ^
There is no level of corruption that you can't get away with in this country as long as you get yourself into the right club first.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:19 PM ^
The Keystone Cops are jealous of the OSU investigation
September 19th, 2018 at 3:24 PM ^
I am getting burned out of these types of headlines in our current time.
"...may have broken the law"
He did or he didn't. The cops don't come up to me and say "you may have been speeding" - I either was or I wasn't.
The clickbait headlines are garbage.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:39 PM ^
If the state is Ohio I don't think it matters
September 19th, 2018 at 3:53 PM ^
(Posted in wrong place.)
September 19th, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^
violating state law? In ohio? regarding the football team? wsj can post all they want, nothing will happen.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:56 PM ^
Gene and Urban violated Drake..... what a circus.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:58 PM ^
OSU only fired Tressel when it became 100% clear that he lied to the NCAA. They figured offering him up as the sacraficial lamb would be enough. The only way Meyer is gone is if the NCAA comes calling and there is actually an imminent threat of sever penalties. So Meyer is never leaving. It is what it is.
September 19th, 2018 at 4:01 PM ^
Nothing will happen.
I've seen this movie before. No on with authority will do anything.
September 19th, 2018 at 10:16 PM ^
What exactly is the spaghetti policy?
/Asking for Al Dente
September 19th, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^
a three loss season including a loss to us... followed by another season with a loss to us, the fan base won't be happy, urban will come down with some health concerns and retire to be with his family.
September 19th, 2018 at 4:53 PM ^
A team with about 50 Top 100 recruits isn't going to lose 3 games.
September 19th, 2018 at 10:17 PM ^
Giving up a double nickel to Kirk Ferentz counts as two losses.
September 19th, 2018 at 4:38 PM ^
Good lord, read the comments to the WSJ article. The responses from pro-Urban people are as unhinged as anything you would find on 11 Warriors. Those OSU people can not grasp that if you want the truth about what people were texting about, you look for the texts, period. Forensic analysis is routine in this day and age. Looks like the investigation was supposed to find some moderately bad facts so Urban could get his slap on the wrist and things could blow over, but definitely not supposed to find anything too bad.
September 19th, 2018 at 5:05 PM ^
Thanks for the reference.
The extent to which administrators at OSU have gone to, and probably will continue into the future, to ensure that it has a good football team is remarkable.
It says something about the commitment to academic quality and ethics standards at OSU.
September 19th, 2018 at 6:37 PM ^
Ensuring that they have a good football team is one thing; ensuring that Urban Meyer coaches said team is another. It's not like they were Indiana before he got there. They could fire him, regain their dignity, and still probably be really good at football.
September 20th, 2018 at 12:29 AM ^
Who cares?? Fuck Ohio State and everyone affiliated with them!! Can we move on to Nebraska!?
Go Blue!!