Former Ohio Lottery Director denies claims of harassment days before resigning for "medical reasons"

May 6, 2023, 6:25 pm (4 comments)

Ohio Lottery

Report finds that Pat McDonald engaged in inappropriate conduct in the workplace

By Kate Northrop

Former Ohio Lottery Commissioner Pat McDonald retired from his role due to "medical reasons" one day after denying allegations of unwanted behavior toward other commission employees.

A new report documenting alleged harassment toward lottery employees has surfaced weeks after the former member of the Ohio Lottery Commission resigned due to undisclosed medical reasons.

On April 12, McDonald announced his abrupt retirement in a brief two-sentence email to Governor Mike DeWine's chief of staff, Stephanie McCloud.

"This is to notify you that I am retiring from my position of Director of the State of Ohio Lottery Commission effective today, April 12, 2023, due to medical reasons," McDonald's email read. "It has been a pleasure to serve the people of Ohio."

McDonald's time with the Ohio Lottery goes back 16 years, having first served as a member and chair of the Ohio Lottery Commission before DeWine appointed him Director in 2019.

Lottery Post sat down virtually with the former Lead Director of Mega Millions in an exclusive interview one year ago to discuss potential game changes that the game group was considering at the time.

His sudden departure from the commission occurred while the Lottery was knee-deep in a few major to-do items on their docket, including settling a stalemate over establishing internet-based lottery gaming, or iLottery, in Ohio, and rebidding its central gaming system contract, which is worth over $90 million every two years.

Governor DeWine appointed Michelle Gillcrist, his aerospace and defense liaison and northeast Ohio regional liaison, as Interim Director of the Ohio Lottery.

DeWine enlisted Cleveland-based law firm Zashin & Rich to conduct an internal review, in which they determined that McDonald had violated Ohio Lottery Commission policy against "inappropriate" conduct in the workplace.

The firm also found that McDonald's Assistant Lottery Director Sean Webster had knowledge of the behavior but failed to take action. As punishment, he will be terminated from his managerial role and reassigned "to a non-supervisory position at a different agency in a lower classification and pay range," according to the state's human resources department.

After receiving the findings, McCloud and Matthew Donahue, DeWine's Chief Counsel, visited Lottery headquarters in Cleveland on April 11 to speak with McDonald about the allegations put forward by a subordinate, which he "explicitly denied." During the meeting, he told them he had "a significant medical condition" and was thinking of retiring, the report goes on to say.

Video footage shows McCloud and Donahue escorting McDonald from commission offices that day. The next morning, he announced his resignation.

The report released Friday documents multiple interactions between McDonald and commission employees over text messages, as well as unwanted physical touching and verbal comments.

The texts sent by McDonald between January and April of this year are described in the report as "expressing inappropriate fondness and innuendo toward two employees."

McDonald often texted "I love you" and other similar phrases, such as "I still have a major crush on you" and "You're a gift from god to me."

"People love you — do we want to expand on things? I'd be happy to keep you to myself," one of his texts from Jan. 21 reads, followed by an eggplant and heart emojis.

The unnamed employee does not reciprocate the flirtations, nor do they directly respond to or address the advances in the text message exchanges provided in the report.

In March, the employee began pushing back, expressing their discomfort about how their boss had photos of them on his phone.

"You cannot take pictures of me. Bottom line," the employee texted.

"I will never do that again but its not illegal," McDonald responded.

The employee then threatened to resign.

Zashin & Rich's report says a Lottery employee notified human resources on April 7 of McDonald's behavior, which includes "unwanted touching of two employees' arms, shoulders, and forehead, an unwanted hug as well as verbal comments about the appearance of two employees."

The probe found that there wasn't any concrete evidence to suggest McDonald engaged in any illegal activity while serving as Director of the Ohio Lottery. McDonald did not face disciplinary action because any potential punishment "is negated by his departure."

Ultimately, the report recommended mandatory training of all Lottery employees on appropriate workplace conduct, educating employees about policy prohibiting potentially offensive, harassing, or retaliatory conduct at work, and for the administration to emphasize to the Assistant Lottery Director and those in managerial roles of their responsibility to report misconduct.

Lottery Post Staff

Comments

Bleudog101

No punishment from the Ohio lottery.

 

Some employees might feel like they won the lottery if they sue.

noise-gate

* Kudos 👏  to LP for putting their " related stories " in a side box to show that " Sudden resignations" are not rare for folks in these positions. Lopez, a director of CA's State lottery fell on his sword years ago for " inappropriate behavior " as well. You better be on your best behavior if you expect to continue picking up a paycheck as a Director of a State lottery. Nice piece Kate!

Artist77's avatarArtist77

A great article.  When any sort of an organization and even law firms get in trouble with typically valid harassment and discrimination claims, the org hires a name law firm to prepare these "investigatory" types of reports. But keep in mind who pays for these reports and who the client is.

These reports usually conclude by saying let's train everyone and do touchy Feely group sessions but do not admit any wrong doing. Rarely do they ever admit wrong doing. These reports also provide for the entities to do essentially early one sided free discovery before a case is filed. 

The manager who knew about it should have been fired. The commissioner should not have been allowed to resign and also deny everything.  The firm and state lottery clearly made him resign but with no statement about his illegal behavior.

That commissioner sounds like a real perv. I am sure there are other women involved and he was likely engaging in this illegal behavior for many years.

You dropped the ball Ohio State Lottery.

Brock Lee's avatarBrock Lee

a moderate to severe case of pervitis. they never like to disclose that one.

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