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Report: Courtney Smith says Ohio State lawyer narrative is innacurate

Andrew Kulha

By Andrew Kulha

Published:

This Zach Smith story won’t be going away anytime soon for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and that’s even after Smith was fired from his position as assistant coach with the football team and Urban Meyer took a three-game suspension for his role in perhaps not really doing anything about the allegations of abuse against his assistant coach.

That’s a good thing. This is a huge, complicated story and considering the subject material there’s a lot on the line. Of course, the most important thing to remember is that there is a clear victim in all of this — Courtney Smith  — but that’s what makes it so important to get to the bottom of the story.

That’s what makes accuracy, transparency, and truth so important.

And that’s where things are starting to get a little bit weird.

The Columbus Dispatch recently released a report detailing a long history of abuse and violence between the former OSU coach and his now ex-wife, a report that included a claim from Courtney Smith that Ohio State actually sent a lawyer to her home after an incident in 2015. That lawyer, per the police report, tried to convince her to drop the charges against Zach Smith because it would “embarrass” the university.

That claim alone would be a major strike against Ohio State as a university if true — along the lines of coverups we’ve seen at Penn State and Baylor — but Brett McMurphy is now reporting that those claims aren’t accurate.

His source? Courtney Smith herself:

The Dispatch was working off a police incident report written by Officer Ben Boruchowitz that was mailed anonymously to them, and it wasn’t disputed by the Powell Police Chief.  Per the Dispatch, Ohio State wasn’t aware of that specific allegation and would investigate it, but now we’re hearing, per McMurphy, that the narrative is inaccurate?

There’s truth here somewhere regarding the OSU lawyer and Courtney Smith. Right now we just don’t know what that truth is, though, and that’s a big deal.

Andrew Kulha

Andrew covers the B1G on Saturday Tradition.