Dann's office says she was set up on a marijuana possession charge during a traffic stop, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Vanessa Stout, 26, also was charged with driving with expired license tags and a suspended driver's license during a traffic stop on Interstate 71 in Morrow County on March 12, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The traffic stop occurred just days after Stout and another employee in Dann's office filed a harassment complaint against Anthony Gutierrez, 50, Dann's director of general services who was placed on paid leave last week as the investigation evolved.
Dann spokesman Ted Hart told the newspaper he couldn't say whether the arrest would affect the ongoing investigation into claims by Stout and Cindy Stankoski, also 26, that they were harassed Gutierrez, their supervisor.
The Dispatch's reporting was "the first we've heard of it. We're not going to comment ... even about office policy generalities," Hart wrote the newspaper in an e-mail message.
Hart also did not tell the newspaper whether the arrest would violate any state drug-free workplace rules. The Associated Press left messages Saturday for Hart by phone and e-mail seeking further comment.
Stout's father, Chris, said his daughter is fighting the charges because the stop likely was a "setup." He said a State Highway
Patrol trooper claimed he smelled marijuana when she was pulled over and immediately found less than a "joint" underneath a visor.
Possession of fewer than 100 grams is a minor misdemeanor in Ohio; having drug paraphernalia is a fourth-degree misdemeanor.
It wasn't Stout's first brush with the law, the Dispatch reported. Stout was 18 and living in Pennsylvania when she was arrested in May 2000 and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of simple assault, the newspaper said.
Court records the newspaper found from Mercer County, Pa., showed that Stout spent a short time in jail in May 2001 for violating terms of her probation.
Chris Stout said the charges arose out of domestic violence in which Vanessa was the victim and are not relevant to her case with the attorney general's office.
"That was a self-defense deal," Chris Stout said. "My daughter doesn't trump charges up on people."
---
Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
