Strickland health official fired over alleged harassment

The Dayton Daily News reports:

As Gov. Ted Strickland was calling on Ohio's embattled attorney general to step downamid sexual harassment allegations last year, another harassment scandal was brewing in one of his own state agencies.

Women employees accused John W. Francis, the newly hired deputy at the Ohio Department of Health, of patting them on the butt, calling them pet names and threatening them with violence.

Francis, a former biochemistry instructor, was fired nearly a year ago. Reasons for the firing and the allegations of sexual misconduct that spanned most of his eight-month tenure were uncovered by an Associated Press review of state records.

Francis came to the state job from Columbus State Community College, where records show he also was accused of sexual harassment. College officials gave Francis otherwise stellar reviews, but ordered him to take sexual harassment awareness training and meet female students only in public areas after one filed a complaint.

(Source: Dayton Daily News, 10/22/09)