"Gutierrez shows up at work, reeking of booze, vomit caked on his nose," PLAIN DEALER

In Saturday's THE PLAIN DEALER, Mark Rollenhagan and Reginald Fields chronicle many of the awful details embedded in the alleged Ohio Attorney General office's sex scandal.   

What comes out, at least to those of us from alcoholic families, is that this is really a story about someone with a drinking problem.  Clearly Gutierrez, who was arrested for a DUI before being hired by Marc Dann for a $100,000+ job, was and still might be in trouble with alcohol. The alleged victim has filed criminal charges.  There is also an internal investigation of the matter at the AG office.

A good defense lawyer might be able to get Gutierrez off the hook.  In addition, that attorney might be able to charge the state and Dann for not intervening on this alcohol issue.  An argument could be made that Gutierrez should have been given the options of stop drinking, go to a rehabilitation unit, or resign. Maybe those options had to presented to him but not enforced.  Maybe they weren't. Whatever. 

The facts are that he continued to drink.  That drinking was tolerated.  And that was a major contributing factor to the behavior which got him in such trouble.

That lack of an effective intervention could bring that whole AG office down as well as being sued.  Gutierrez could get off with a sentence to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and five-years probation.  Most courts understand alcoholism. Dann et al. might not turn out to be as fortunate.  Think of it this way: Suppose an intoxicated Gutierrez was using a state vehicle and killed another driver.  The dead person's family would certainly go after the state coffers. 

As one reader of this blog commented: This is sad for Gutierrez's family.  I add that it's also sad for Gutierrez.  He could have been and should have been put out of harm's way.