Misconduct from officials at the helm of the Ohio Lottery Commission are responsible for the recent shake-up in the organization’s leadership.
Lisa DeJong | The Plain Dealer (TNS)
COLUMBUS—Pat McDonald resigned last month as director of the Ohio Lottery Commission after being confronted by DeWine administration officials about allegations of unwanted touching and suggestive text messages sent to employees, according to a report released Friday.
State officials also said Friday they are reassigning the Lottery’s assistant director, Sean Webster, to a lower-ranking job in a different state agency after the report found the official knew of McDonald’s inappropriate actions but didn’t take appropriate action.
McDonald, who resigned April 12 citing unspecified “medical reasons,” sent text messages “expressing inappropriate fondness and innuendo toward two employees,” according to a report prepared by the Cleveland law firm of Zashin & Rich.
McDonald also touched two employees’ arms, shoulders, and forehead, gave an unwanted hug, and made verbal comments about the appearance of two employees, according to the report.
In addition, the report stated, McDonald “instructed and allowed two employees additional flexibility beyond the agency’s timekeeping policy.” However, the probe found, “there was insufficient evidence that staff failed to work requisite hours.”
The Ohio Lottery’s human resources director, Liz Alex, was contacted Feb. 26 by an unnamed employee who reported that McDonald gave the person a hug and touched the person’s shoulders and arm, according to the report. The following day, Alex told the employee that McDonald was informed that the behavior was “unwelcome” and that he apologized.
In April, the employee contacted Alex again and gave “additional details that were not provided previously,” the report stated. Lottery Interim Chief Legal Counsel Dan Carter then contacted Gov. Mike DeWine’s chief legal counsel, Matthew Donahue, who – along with DeWine Chief of Staff Stephanie McCloud – met with McDonald on April 11 to discuss the unspecified allegations.
McDonald “explicitly denied” the allegations, the report stated, but during the meeting he “disclosed a significant medical condition” and said he was considering retirement. He issued his resignation letter the following day.
Any further investigation or potential punishment against McDonald “is negated by his departure,” the report stated.
In text messages provided by the Ohio Lottery Commission via a public-records request, McDonald sent numerous late-night text messages to an employee. In the texts, McDonald repeatedly tells the employee “I love you,” and that McDonald wishes the employee was his son.
“I drive you crazy but you will never have a boss nor dude that cares and loves you so much,” McDonald wrote in one of the texts. In another, McDonald wrote, “You are the most amazing and fun, intellectual and hot dude I ever meet (sic)”
The employee, as with most of the texts McDonald sent in the file provided to cleveland.com, did not text a reply to either of those comments.
McDonald raised the idea of getting the employee a new job that paid $90,000 per year. At one point McDonald wrote about how the employee confronted him aggressively about photos he apparently had taken.
“So you admit that you do take pictures without my knowledge,” the employee wrote, adding later, “I have never felt so disrespected and deceived by somebody who I trusted.”
Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to McDonald for comment.
McDonald had served as lottery director since 2019, when Gov. Mike DeWine appointed him to the job. Prior to that, he served on the Lottery Commission board from 2007 until his appointment as director, and he worked for six years as director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
The DeWine administration hired Zashin & Rich to conduct the investigation shortly after McDonald announced his retirement.
