DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — For Cindy Stankoski and Vanessa Stout, landing jobs at Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann's office meant pay raises and state benefits.

But what they probably didn't count on was a boss who made sexual come-ons, groped them and at one point got in bed with one of them after she passed out drunk.

Those are the allegations in a sexual harassment complaint obtained by the Columbus Dispatch. In the complaint, Cindy Stankoski, 26, said that on Sept. 10 she went out for drinks with Anthony Gutierrez, Dann's friend and general operations manager. Dann called Gutierrez during the evening and told the pair to come to a suburban Columbus apartment that Dann, Gutierrez and Communications Director Leo Jennings III shared at the time, the complaint said.

Stankoski felt "very tipsy," asked to lay down and Gutierrez offered his bedroom, the complaint said. Hours later, she awoke to find three of her pants buttons undone and Gutierrez beside her wearing only underwear, it said.

Gutierrez, who is now on paid leave, on Monday, April 7, referred calls to Jennings, who declined to comment on any specific allegations in the complaint. Stankoski declined to comment.

A second employee, Vanessa Stout, 26, presented her concerns to the human resources department March 6 and offered her personal cell phone records and a journal to back up her claims, according to e-mails obtained by the Dayton Daily News.

"They had advised me that they didn't want them. Reason being, that all information given would be public record," Stout wrote to Angela Smedlund, the Equal Employment officer for Dann.

Smedlund opened an investigation last week, but on Monday Dann appointed Executive Assistant Attorney General Ben Espy and Assistant Attorney General Julie Pfeiffer to conduct the inquiry. Smedlund said she felt she couldn't be impartial.

Gutierrez, 50, who is married and lives a few doors down from Dann's house in Liberty Twp. near Youngstown, is paid $87,485 a year to run the attorney general's mail room, purchasing and maintenance operations.

Gutierrez was hired Feb. 5, 2007, a month after he settled his unpaid state taxes — some of which had been delinquent for 10 years — and pleaded no contest to reckless operation of a vehicle. Originally, he had been charged with drunken driving. He did not disclose the traffic offense on his application where he was asked if he had any felony or misdemeanor convictions or traffic citations.

A high school graduate who owns a construction company, Gutierrez was hired even though he is on a payment plan to pay more than $10,000 in delinquent federal income taxes, had once filed for bankruptcy, and had more than two dozen liens and judgments against him.

Stankoski is paid $30,160 a year as a telecommunications assistant.

Related article: AG staffer on paid leave over sexual harassment allegations

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