DaytonDailyNews.com

If the Ohio House ultimately tries to impeach Attorney General Marc Dann, it could come down to Dann's testimony in his office's internal investigation of sexual harassment.

Lawmakers from both parties are poring over what Dann said — or didn't say — during his two interviews with investigators from his own office. And in his testimony Dann seemed blissfully unaware of key details of his own office and life.

He didn't know his roommate and chief of general services had taken control of a series of state vehicles and had them equipped with lights and sirens, traveling with a gun.

He didn't know whether he had actually signed the lease for the apartment he shared with two top aides while he was in Columbus.

He said he was unaware that management and employees were romantically involved or if there was a policy in his office against such relationships, even though he himself admitted to having an affair with a subordinate.

"I'm aware that people would meet after work," he testified April 22, the day after his office released e-mails indicating he sometimes met with aides for drinks. "There is a volleyball league."

Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, has not decided if the House should proceed with impeachment, but Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern is already calling for it if Dann doesn't resign.

"I do believe in the totality ... that it does rise to the level of impeachment," said Redfern, a state representative from Catawba Island. "It's about the lies."

Did Dann lie during his interviews with executive assistant attorney general Ben Espy? A review of the transcripts paints the picture of a man either oblivious to the dynamic in an office that staffers say was fraught with drama or not completely forthright with investigators.

For example:

• Staffer Vanessa Stout, who accused Director of General Services Anthony Gutierrez of sexual harassment, testified that when Dann suggested she apply for a job in the attorney general's office, she expressed concern that her past criminal record — which included DUI, assault and theft — might disqualify her. "And he was just like, you know, nodding his head, telling me, yeah, there's no problem, there's ways to go around that, Tony will work through that," she testified. That's a vastly different story than Dann recounted in his April 22 testimony, where he said he was unaware of Stout's criminal record when he encouraged her to apply. "Ben, I'm a little bit offended that you would even suggest that I would do something like that," he told Espy.

• Dann's testimony also differs from Gutierrez's on how Gutierrez came to work in the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Dann reports he "wasn't aware of whether (Gutierrez) had applied for a job," but "at some point I became aware that he had applied." He said when he heard Gutierrez had applied, he expressed concerns about Gutierrez's tax liens and drunken driving arrest to his chief of staff. Gutierrez, meanwhile, said he took the job because "Marc Dann asked me to come on board." He said Dann first approached him about the job the day before Christmas, and gave him a booklet about the department he wanted Gutierrez to head. Gutierrez began work Feb. 5, according to his testimony. But that differs from Dann's account: He said he first became aware Gutierrez had applied in late January or early February.

• Dann said he was unaware that Gutierrez was issued or allowed to use a state vehicle as general services director. "I have no personal knowledge of that," Dann said. "I've seen him drive state vehicles. But other than — but in terms of the allowance and issuance, I know that initially it was my understanding that he wasn't allowed to drive a state vehicle." Gutierrez, meanwhile, testified that not only was he allowed to drive a state vehicle, but he was issued four during his time as director of general services. For much of that time, Dann and Gutierrez were roommates.

• Dann reports he was unaware that Gutierrez traveled with a gun and equipped his state vehicle with sirens and lights. Gutierrez, meanwhile, cites Dann as the reason he had his state car loaded up with police-style gear. According to maintenance reports maintained by Charlie Rosol of the Attorney General's Office, at least two vehicles, a 2004 red Chevy Suburban and a 2007 Black Chevy Tahoe, had police lights and sirens.

"It was to my knowledge that Tony's vehicles had police lights and sirens due to the fact when Marc Dann's vehicle was in the shop for maintenance or in the Youngstown area, Tony's vehicle would and could be used to transport Marc around," Rosol wrote in that maintenance report. "I was told ... that on several occasions this occurred."

Dann, meanwhile, testified that that was rarely the case.

"I think there was one time that I used a car Tony had driven when my car was in the shop or otherwise occupied," Dann said. "That's all the personal knowledge that I have about that."

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