Posted on 10/17/2006 4:09:20 PM PDT by David Cameron
A "Foley problem" at the heart of Ted Strickland's Democratic gubernatorial campaign in Ohio deepened over the weekend when an anonymous e-mailer revealed the identity of the "mystery man" in the Strickland organization who has a history of sexual misconduct involving minors going back to 1994.
Bryan Specht, now age 33, was the campaign manager for Rep. Ted Strickland's 1998 congressional re-election. Specht was named as the perpetrator in the criminal records distributed in an anonymous e-mail circulated in Ohio last Friday and forwarded to this author. The anonymous e-mail apparently was sent simultaneously to several different Ohio attorneys and bloggers by someone identified only as "Ohio Concerned Citizen."
The e-mail sent last weekend included several police reports concerning the sexual offenses with Bryan Specht's name clearly printed, along with other identifying information, including Social Security number. Brian Flannery, the challenger to Strickland in this year's Ohio Democratic Party gubernatorial primary, attacked Strickland with copies of these same police reports, identical except that the name of the offender and other identifying information concerning the offender had been redacted through blackouts.
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Last Friday's anonymous e-mail was the first time the "mystery" sexual offender associated with the Strickland campaign had been revealed. We compared the police records with Brian Specht's name and identifying information with the redacted documents circulated during the primary by challenger Flannery and found the documents were identical, with the exception of the redacted information.
As previously reported, Ohio newspapers had disclosed earlier this year that Strickland refused to fire the man in 1998 even after being notified of Specht's sexual misconduct charges. Moreover, Strickland took Specht on a celebratory trip to Italy, without Strickland's wife, after the 1998 electoral victory, despite being presented evidence that Specht had committee sexual improprieties with minors.
According to the original Athens Police Department records provided in the anonymous e-mail, Specht was arrested Sept. 23, 1994. Specht, then a 21 year-old Ohio University student, was apprehended for several incidents of public indecency that had occurred on four previous days, Sept. 4, 12, 15 and 20, 1994. According to the report, Specht was observed disrobing in public areas such as East Side Elementary School. The witnesses were adults as well as minors.
A separate witness complaint filed with the Athens Police Department Sept. 15, 1994, further documents that Specht was in his parked car outside the school. When the two juvenile witnesses passed the car, Specht "opened the door and pulled down his pants, and began to masturbate."
According to the Athens Police Department report, Specht appeared at court Sept. 26, 1994, and pleaded "guilty." Psychological counseling was recommended.
Specht currently resides in Chicago, Ill., where he is a public relations counsel with the Chicago office of Weber Shandwick, an international public relations consultant firm.
A Google search reveals Brian Specht as the person who maintains a blog where he is identified only as "Cyclebreaker." The title of Specht's blog is "Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Childhood Sexual Abuse."
In the "About Me" section of the blog, Specht reveals that he was the victim of repeated childhood abuse by caregivers, relatives and a parent. His next statement appears to confirm the sexual misconduct with minors reported by the Athens Police Department, plus some additional misconduct, including drug abuse:
By college I became an example of the need for early intervention; an example of how child abuse can lead one to be self-destructive. I was a case study in the stats – 59 percent more likely to be arrested, 33 percent more likely to be an abuser and 66 percent more likely to abuse drugs.
Specht reveals that he "sought forgiveness from God" and further asserts that his life was "profoundly changed forever" as a consequence.
Specht says that through "intensive treatment and strong faith" he managed to "turn his life around" – though he still rails about "a broken insurance system where the necessary services were not covered."
Today I am a healthy father, husband and Christian. I am proud to serve on the board and key committees of two abuse prevention organizations. I hope to help any way I can to end this vicious cycle.
Ohio Concerned Citizen, in the anonymous e-mail revealing Specht's name and producing the un-redacted police documents concerning his sexual offenses with minors, pulls no punches in attacking Strickland over the Specht affair.
In a shocking contrast of "do as I say, not as I do," Congressman Ted Strickland running for governor of Ohio has a deeply disturbing and suppressed history relating to the same kind of trust issues raised by the recent Mark Foley cyber-sex scandal.
Ohio Concerned Citizen notes that Strickland espouses "personal piety and concern for children," yet the anonymous e-mailer charges Strickland with "engaging in troubling and possibly criminal behavior." According to Ohio Concerned Citizen, Strickland, whenever questioned about Specht's sexual improprieties, dismisses the relevance of the charges "by calling them 'ridiculous.'" Ohio Concerned Citizen ends his e-mail by charging Strickland with using a strategy of claiming innocence in the attempt to buy time.
Now, however, with the election just weeks away, in the interest of full disclosure, Congressman Strickland must provide a full explanation for the record below, particularly because he is campaigning as a proponent of the values that are best for Ohio.
Ohio Concerned Citizen goes on to object to a Strickland campaign ad produced by MacWilliams, Robinson, & Partners, a public relations firm in Washington, D.C. (first ad). The anonymous e-mailer notes that the ad begins with Strickland saying, "I will be a law-abiding governor." The commercial ends with Strickland saying, "If we attend to our kids in a timely manner and provide them with what every child needs, safety, appropriate health care, and early learning experiences, we will be preparing those children to become successful adults."
Ohio Concerned Citizen objects:
As the record below demonstrates, Strickland has violated the very principles and statements that he is representing as the reason he should be elected Ohio's governor.
In his e-mail, Ohio Concerned Citizen asks why Strickland hired a man who was "known to have been arrested for public indecency after exposing himself to children on multiple occasions?" The e-mailer further questioned why the congressman rewarded Specht with a celebratory 1998 trip to Italy alone with Strickland instead of firing him as soon as he learned of the charges. "Are we known by the company we keep?" Ohio Concerned Citizen asks.
In a Podcast for young public-relations professionals recorded by Josh Morton, who works for Specht at Weber Shandwick Chicago, Specht repeats his anger at an insurance system. "I sort of stumbled into politics. I was passionate about an issue that affected me and my family," Specht explains in the Podcast.
I come from a working class family with not a lot of access to resources, particular health care issues. My family had a lot of experience with mental illness and addiction. I saw through my personal experiences a health care system and really a society that did not seriously address problems of addiction, abuse, mental health or mental health parity in our financial medical health system.
Specht further explained that he "stumbled into politics" on a personal mission without intending to make politics his career.
According to the Podcast, Specht is a member of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and served on the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign staff. He is currently a senior vice president at Weber Shandwick Chicago, where he is director of corporate affairs and a member of the executive leadership team. Specht directs the group's global corporate reputation, corporate issues and crisis management programs.
Specht's attorney, Marc Mezibov, of the Cincinnati law firm Mezibov & Jenkins did not dispute that Specht was properly identified as the perpetrator in the original 1994 criminal records from the Athens Police Department.
Mezibov further confirmed to this writer that Specht's 1994 criminal records in Athens, Ohio, had been expunged in 2002 at Specht's request.
The attorney also denied that Specht was involved in any homosexual relationship with Strickland.
"Our client is not a predator," Mezibov said, "and he is not a homosexual." Mezibov added, "To the best of my professional knowledge, these incidents in the 1990s are the full extent of Mr. Specht's criminal record."
Mezibov also confirmed that Specht traveled to Italy alone with Strickland in 1998 to celebrate the lawmaker's re-election.
No response was received from the Strickland gubernatorial campaign after several phone calls asking for comment on this development.
The campaign of Republican Party gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell declined to comment.
Jerome R. Corsi received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972 and has written many books and articles, including co-authoring with John O'Neill the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." Corsi's most recent book was authored with Michael Evans: "Showdown with Nuclear Iran." Dr. Corsi's other recent books include "Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil," which he co-authored with WND columnist Craig. R. Smith, and "Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians."
I'll look forward to reading about Strickland in tomorrow's NYT.
It doesn't matter if you're an axe-murderer to a Democrat voter, as long as your name has a (D) next to it on the ballot....they'll vote fer ya.
Already posted:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1720817/posts?page=2
Awww...geez! Not another one!
Watch for this to break big tomorrow! Disgusting, and really a bad thing.
I'm sure they just went to Italy to share a Stake Florentine.
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