[UPDATED:] Russo was right; Dann's wife involved in the office more than we knew

From the Warren Chronicle Tribune (HT: Jill at WLST):

The e-mail messages also deal with the involvement of Dann’s wife, Alyssa Lenhoff Dann, head of the Youngstown State University journalism program, in the office.

Lenhoff Dann was included in e-mail messages concerning the office’s response to a bill revising Ohio’s open records law, and she made presentations at sessions training public officials about the new law.

On Oct. 18, 2007, Simpson wrote to Lenhoff Dann telling her she was supposed to pick dates for sessions she wanted to handle. The next day, she responded: ‘‘Look below, butthead.’’

At that point, Simpson apparently realized Lenhoff Dann had put her name by six sessions she was interested in. Two of those also had Simpson’s name. Simpson replied, ‘‘Oh ....OK, that’s me.’’

Simpson and Lenhoff Dann became friends when they both worked at the Tribune Chronicle.

If is unclear if Lenhoff Dann taught all of those sessions. A message seeking comment was left on Lenhoff Dann’s cell phone.

The e-mails also deal with the application for a $6,200 grant from the attorney general’s office for YSU to offer a joint journalism/criminal justice class on old unsolved murders, so-called cold cases. The class was offered this spring, but Lenhoff Dann apparently did not administer the grant or teach the course.

In another exchange between Lenhoff Dann and Simpson, she wrote on Oct. 18 that the money would be used for the instructor’s fee, a field trip and to promote the class.‘‘So what say you?’’ she wrote to Simpson.

He responded, ‘‘I’ll take it to the crew... It sounds very cool. If you break up the class into groups, what do you think about me running one of the groups?’’

Lenhoff Dann replied Oct. 19: ‘‘We would love for you to run one of the groups. We could absolutely do it.’’

So the place where Marc Dann's wife works gets a grant from Dann's office, she gets to conduct training sessions for state employees (for free?), and Marc Dann's mistress gets instant staffing help after blowing up at him all within a month after the now infamous condo incident.  And we're just supposed to presume there's nothing unusual about this?

[UPDATE:] Nzbobster's comment made me want to also post this story from today's Dayton Daily News.  Apparently, one of the reasons, Dann's father-in-law might have been publicly defending Dann for hiring Gutierrez was because Gutierrez's company was doing work on his property when Goose was supposed to be doing the people's work.

Goose denies that he did any work for Dann's father-in-law while on the state's dime:

"I did no work at all (for MTV). My wife owns that company. She took it over in January 2007," he said. Gutierrez said that in early 2007, his wife occasionally sent him MTV Construction documents to check over on his own time.

Except that:

Among the list of materials' costs in the invoice is one for $900 with the notation "Floor from Tony."

And, of course, Marc Dann knew nothing of any of this, even though it involved one of his closest friends and his in-laws and they all live in the same neighborhood:

When asked at the press conference about the allegations that Gutierrez had been operating MTV on state time, Dann said, "I hope not. I had specific conversations with him and I told him personally that that was unacceptable. And I didn't know whether he was doing it or not."

Dann, Lenhoff and Gutierrez live in the same neighborhood in Liberty Twp. in Trumbull County. Lenhoff declined to comment.

Pathetic.