Former longtime Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center employee investigated for sexual misconduct

In 2023, a contract employee with KNS Services, Inc., a security system company based in Plain City, Ohio, wrote to company president Ken Southworth, detailing the sexual harassment and assault he said he experienced beginning in 2018 at the hands of Dustin Thompson, then assistant director of hospital security at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and an employee of 23 years. 

In the email, included in a formal complaint filed with Ohio State’s Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) on May 31, 2023, and obtained via a records request by Matter News, the contractor, whose name has been redacted, traced the steady escalation of his interactions with Thompson over time. Early on, the contractor wrote, Thompson would call meetings that should have lasted 10 to 15 minutes and stretch them to an hour or longer, generally pivoting away from the project at hand to more personal inquiries.

“He would ask me why he and I weren’t real friends,” the contractor wrote. When asked to define what he meant by real friends, the man said in the complaint that Thompson replied, “I want to be friends with someone that if I asked you to suck my dick you would and it would be ok.” 

A second KNS contractor, whose allegations also appear in the OIE report, made similar, independent allegations of sexual misconduct against Thompson – an account further supported by text messages between the two, screenshots of which are included in the report.

Thompson did not reply to multiple requests for comment made via his Columbus attorney, Brian Garvine, but in an email reply sent to an OIE investigator on Oct. 13, 2023, Garvine wrote that his client “does not accept responsibility in this matter.” And in an interview conducted by OIE investigators, a transcript of which was obtained via records request, Thompson described these allegations as “typical friendship banter” and consensual between all parties, while acknowledging that he had engaged in behaviors that included grabbing the buttocks of both contractors, rubbing their chests, and on multiple occasions pulling down their pants, or “de-pantsing” them. He also said he repeatedly touched one contractor’s penis through his jeans, in addition to putting his hands down the man’s pants.

At multiple points in the nearly two-hour interview, Thompson, speaking in the presence of an attorney, asserted that these alleged behaviors took place almost exclusively outside of the office and in the normal course of friendship, and that they had no impact on business. “Work was always work,” he said.

OIE investigated these claims in tandem with the Ohio State University Police Department, according to Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson, who said the “allegations of sexual misconduct were substantiated” against Thompson and Matthew Wolfzorn, a former employee within the Department of Safety at Ohio State. Both employees resigned in lieu of termination after being placed on administrative leave during the investigation, Johnson said, with OSU accepting Thompson’s resignation on Oct. 19, 2023, and Wolfzorn’s almost a month later, on Nov. 13, 2023, according to employee personnel files obtained with a records request. 

In his email to Southworth detailing the initial allegations, the contractor wrote that Thompson could be unpredictable, moving between career-related threats (“He made me believe with the snap of his fingers I would be unemployed”) and acts of generosity he said inevitably arrived with strings attached. “If I didn’t give him the friendship he wanted after said gift,” he wrote, “he would then bring up my job and relationship and how I need him to keep everything together.”

This harassment took a physical turn 18 months into their work relationship following a dispute, the contractor said, writing how at that point Thompson routinely began to grab the man’s buttocks, along with making repeated attempts to grab his penis. After the two collaborated on one larger job, the contractor said Thompson asked for 10 minutes in which he could touch him “wherever he wanted” as a way of proving the two “were in this together.” 

The contractor dismissed the proposal but said the alleged harassment continued, leading to an incident in which he said he was talked into completely disrobing during a visit to Thompson’s home, the day after which he resigned from his position at KNS. 

Reached by phone, KNS vice president Nathan Bladen said he was aware of the allegations but considered the matter “handled and closed,” and Johnson said the company continues to serve as a vendor for the university.

The allegations detailed by the two contractors align with the behaviors described by Wolfzorn, who is named as a perpetrator in the OIE complaint and who spoke at length with Matter News in late March about the grooming, molestation, and abuse he said he experienced working with Thompson for nearly 15 years.

“He’s very good at putting himself in a situation where you feel like he’s indispensable to you,” said Wolfzorn, who began working with Thompson, 18 years his senior, when he was 21 years old, having landed a full-time position in OSU’s Department of Safety in March 2008, roughly six months after he started in the department as a student employee. 

“He would basically say, ‘You’re not going to be able to do this without me, so I’ll get us there.’ He’s a charismatic person, and he’s able to convince you that you need him, that he’s integral to your success, and that he has to be involved in every part of your life to accomplish that. … And it’s almost unbelievable looking back now, but it’s one of those things where he slowly kind of took over everything and, piece by piece, was able to get me to do things that I would have never believed could happen.”

This culminated in the events alleged in the OIE complaint by one of the KNS contractors – the only mention of Wolfzorn included in either man’s account of their time working with OSU – who said that he met with Thompson and Wolfzorn at the latter’s house on back-to-back weeks for what Thompson referred to as “girls’ nights,” details from which were confirmed by Wolfzorn. 

On the first occasion, Thompson attempted to get the contractor to show the group his penis, the man said, baiting him with information about the inner workings of the Ohio State-KNS relationship and how the contractor was viewed by those in positions of power. The contractor refused, writing, “I felt as though it was unnecessary and childish, so instead they flashed me trying to [show] me how this was normal.” On a visit a week later, he said he relented, attributing his decision to a hellacious work week and a belief that he needed Thompson’s support to better navigate the increasing on the job challenges.

“This was the beginning to a long and brutal couple of years,” the contractor wrote.

Concurrent with the OIE investigation, detectives with Ohio State’s Department of Public Safety also launched an inquiry into Thompson for possible coercion/blackmail related to university financing and his contracting work with KNS, according to a police report obtained by Matter News via public records request, which cited the existence of text messages sent between Thompson and KNS that suggested Thompson “might be trying to benefit KNS is some way.” Detectives closed the investigation with no charges filed, unable to uncover evidence of any crimes involving university finances or contracts. 

“The allegations were fully investigated in accordance with standard university protocols,” OSU spokesperson Johnson wrote in response to specific questions from Matter News, “and we are confident in the decision.”

The OIE investigation into the abuse allegations made by the two contractors accounted for the spike in instances of fondling cited in the 2023 Clery Report, which is published annually in October and includes the on-campus crime statistics from the previous three calendar years. In 2023, Ohio State reported 366 instances of fondling – up from 53 reports in 2022 – with 300 of these attributable to the incidents documented in the OIE investigation, Johnson said. (The Clery Report counts incidents in the year they were reported, not the year they occurred.) 

In the wake of the OIE investigation, Ohio State reported the assault allegations to law enforcement, but Johnson said both of the KNS contractors declined to pursue charges.

It’s common for men to not report instances of sexual harassment or abuse, said Victor Petreca, an assistant professor at the Boston College William Connell School of Nursing, who in 2024 co-authored a paper titled “Long-Term Psychological and Physiological Effects of Male Sexual Trauma,” which included data gleaned from interviews with 47 men who were victimized within an institutional environment by a person in a position of power.

“The literature indicates a lot of guys are afraid of being perceived as gay, perceived as weak,” Petreca said. “And often we see this idea across the board with sexual assault survivors, where people are like: ‘Why didn’t you fight back?’; ‘Why didn’t you stop it?’; ‘Why didn’t you do something?’ And that pressure seems to be even more so with men, maybe because of the physicality associated with them. A lot of the guys [in the study] didn’t quite accept to themselves that they had been abused. They were almost rationalizing things in their heads.”

Such was the case with Wolfzorn, who said that even more than a year removed from the situation is still coming to grips with what he experienced, a process he said has been aided by therapy. 

“From the male perspective, nobody expects it to happen, and as a society, we don’t even know how to talk about it. … We think the straight, white guy from Ohio can’t be the victim, and that’s the furthest thing from the truth, because it can happen to anyone at any time,” said Wolfzorn, who continues to struggle with the language he should use to define his experiences with Thompson. “I do consider what he did molestation. And I don’t know if it’s the culture of it or society, but I don’t say ‘assault,’ because even if he was convincing me to do things, he wasn’t physically forcing me.”

He then paused, and added, “And really, I’m downplaying it even today. It was assault. I was not a willing participant. And I said no hundreds of times, too.”

Wolfzorn said he first collaborated on a project with Thompson shortly after he started working full-time in the Department of Safety in 2008. (Thompson started as a security officer at the Ohio State University Medical Center in May 2000, according to personnel files.) A self-described introvert, Wolfzorn said, he was drawn to Thompson, who initially positioned himself as someone who could be a friend and a work ally whose comparative seniority could help Wolfzorn along in his career.

“You’re working your first professional job, working with someone with a much higher title, and all of that weighs on it. This person is telling you that they’re going to help your career, and that any challenge you run into you can overcome together,” said Wolfzorn, who said these conversations soon took on more discomforting tones, with Thompson regularly calling him multiple times a day. 

“He would start by getting you to cross some boundary you weren’t comfortable with, like talking about yourself,” Wolfzorn said “And you would push back and say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to talk about that.’ And then he would say something like, ‘You must not be my friend then.’ And step by step, he’d get you to open up and say something you weren’t comfortable saying, or doing something you weren’t comfortable doing. And this happened over a period of years, but it just kept escalating. And once he got you to cross a line that you had in your mind, he expected that was the new line.”

A couple of years into their work relationship, Wolfzorn said these behaviors began to turn physical. Thompon would allow his hand to linger on Wolfzorn’s shoulder, he said, or stand closer than necessary while the two conversed. “He had this statement he would make, which was something like, ‘True friends can do anything to each other,’ and if you said no, you weren’t being your true, open self,” said Wolfzorn, who said Thompson assaulted him on an almost weekly basis for the better part of the 15 years the two worked together, which he said could place the total number of instances of abuse well north of 500. “I don’t even really know if for him it was more of a sexual thing or a control thing, but to be honest I think it was more about control, about power.”

“The safety of Ohio State students and employees is our top priority,” OSU spokesperson Johnson wrote in response to a specific question about Wolfzorn’s decision to speak on the record with Matter News about the previously unreported claims of sexual harassment and assault he said he experienced working for years with Thompson. “The allegations in this case are disturbing and antithetical to Ohio State’s values and workplace culture. We urge anyone who is the victim of harassment or suspects harassment to report it immediately. Reports can be anonymous, and all reports are thoroughly investigated.” 

Oftentimes, Wolfzorn said, Thompson would present something as a physical or mental challenge, asking him to perform some continually expanding dare as a means of proving he was in “control of his mind and body.” 

“If it was snowy outside, he would say, ‘Go stand in the snow. If you can do that, you can do anything,’” Wolfzorn said. “Then he would say, ‘Let’s go stand in the garage together and take our socks off and stand on the cold concrete.’ And then it would be like, ‘Let’s take our shirts off and stand on the cold concrete, because what could be more macho than that?’ And then it would keep escalating in this way where it would be like, ‘Oh, let’s do it in just our boxers. Wouldn’t that be more macho? Wouldn’t you feel more in control of yourself?’ Then it would be, ‘Let’s do it totally naked. What’s more in control?’ And all of a sudden you’d be standing naked in the garage. And you would have this moment where you’d be like, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ And then he would say, ‘You really got through this. You’re better. Look how much closer we are.’ … It was always presented as, ‘You’ll be so much stronger if you can accomplish this difficult thing. If you can do this, imagine being in a meeting with a senior vice president. You won’t be nervous at all.’”

The account offered by Wolfzorn mirrors aspects of the allegations made by the two KNS contractors, one of whom detailed an instance in which he said that Thompson asked him to remove his socks and shoes at a meeting between the two to prove he could “be adaptable to situations when they come up to be a better project manager.” (Thompson denied this allegation in his interview with OIE investigators.)

“And it would become this routine thing where he would repeat that behavior and get you to do it again, and he would be like: ‘Well, last time you took your shirt off’; ‘Last time you took your pants off’; ‘Last time you took your boxers off.’ And each time that line was reset. And eventually it got to where he was touching you, or asking you to touch him,” Wolfzorn said. “And if you said no, he would throw this fit and find ways to make your life hell. … If you were working on a project, he would be like, ‘If I can’t completely trust you to do this simple thing, then there’s no way we’re going to get this project through administration. … I’m going to call my boss tomorrow and shut this project down.’ And he would go to such extremes that eventually you’d be like, ‘Well, you know, this isn’t that big of a deal. I guess I could do this. I’ve done it. It already happened. What’s the big deal if it happens again?’ And then time and time it continues to occur.”

Both of the accounts given by the KNS contractors include similar details. One contractor wrote about visiting Thompson’s house with his wife, recalling how Thompson invited the couple to use his 12-person hot tub, which they eventually did as the evening progressed. During a later meeting, the contractor wrote, Thompson asked him to take off his shirt, telling him it would help him adapt to the types of awkward situations required of the job, and reminding him that he had previously been shirtless with him in the hot tub. If the contractor declined or questioned the nature of these requests, he said Thompson would respond with threats. 

“If I refused to take off my shirt during times like this, Dustin would tell me I do not have the right mindset for the job and I would ultimately fail,” wrote the contractor, who went on to detail how these behaviors escalated, claiming that Thompson repeatedly grabbed his penis, put his hand on his chest under his shirt, and on one occasion removed the man’s socks and shoes to kiss and lick his feet, an incident that Thomspon told OIE investigators took place at Wexner Medical Center (“That was in my office,” he said, “which was wrong at work, I understand.) “Please understand this did not happen overnight. [Thompson] manipulated me and gaslit me for a very long time until he got me to a point where things that did not make sense started to make sense. He has gotten me to question the very reality of things and to question my own thoughts.”

“I mean, that exactly describes my experience,” Wolfzorn said upon being read this last statement, recalling how he began to mentally disassociate whenever the alleged assaults occurred as a means of coping with the abuse. “I’m still coming to terms with it. At the time, I was in a relationship, living with a girl, and it was hard to navigate the stigma of telling my story, because all I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball and disappear.”

Owing to this reality, Wolfzorn said he refrained from giving a full account when he sat down with investigators from Ohio State, tracing his reticence to a variety of factors. 

First, as an employee within the Department of Public Safety, Wolfzorn said he had previously worked closely with the detective who led the investigation, and the familiarity between the two made it more challenging to share what he had experienced. Furthermore, university authorities informed Wolfzorn early in the process that anything he said would be part of the public record, which made him wary of offering up intimate details that could potentially be accessed by anyone who made a request. Plus, at that point, he had barely started to work through for himself what he had actually been through, which to this day remains an ongoing process.

“And so, I didn’t know how to answer their questions, and I held back,” said Wolfzorn, who hasn’t spoken with Thompson since the day the two were put on administrative leave. “I didn’t even know what I was comfortable talking about at that point, because in my mind I was still experiencing it. … It felt like a situation where I couldn’t win, either for my career or for myself.”

Now, however, Wolfzorn expresses gratitude for the two contractors who came forward and triggered the OIE investigation that ultimately led to his resignation from Ohio State. Had they not, Wolfzorn said, he would likely still be trapped in that abusive environment with no end in sight.

“The only reason I’m out of that situation is because those two came forward,” said Wolfzorn, who was initially hesitant about speaking on the record when contacted by Matter News in early March but ultimately embraced the interview as an opportunity to share his story in the hopes it might benefit those who have had similar experiences. “Other people need to know this exists, you will get through it, it’s all okay. You know, it happened. It’s a situation I went through, it’s not who I am. And I’m okay.”  

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If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault, we encourage you to reach out for support:

RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline
https://www.rainn.org
1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

Crisis Text Line
SMS: Text “HELLO” or “HOLA” to 741-741