Bark with the creeps

Rodney Creech defends lying in bed with his teenage daughter while only wearing underwear. Kevin Boyce gears up to run for Congress. And Jim Tressel refuses to dash gubernatorial ambitions (again).

I enjoy my job because I never know what the day will bring. Like yesterday, when I was standing on the northeast corner of Broad and High waiting for State Rep. Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria) to emerge from the Peanut Shoppe.

I had ended my meal at Eliá Athenian Grill with alacrity when I saw Creech strolling down High Street with Reps. Ron Ferguson (R-Wintersville) and Michelle Teska (R-Centerville).

It was a fortuitous sighting. Outside the Statehouse, it's a much, much, much longer walk to any restricted area. It’s the equivalent of being stranded in international waters.

Earlier in the day, some of Creech’s colleagues had asked if I thought he would run when confronted about the allegations that he got into bed with his teenage daughter with an erect penis that could be seen through his undwear.

I didn’t think he would, because Creech has always understood that it’s always better to have a conversation with me than look guilty and let me tee off on that ass.

In the end, I was right. Creech didn’t run from any questions, though we had a three-minute conversation at a brisk walking pace. You can see the video, sans the introductory small talk, above.

In it, Creech defended lying in bed, on multiple occasions, with his teenage daughter while only clad in his underwear. Creech also claimed that “a lot of parents he had talked to” agreed that they routinely walk around the house in their underwear in front of their children.

I’ll let the streets judge that part of the video. Longtime readers can probably guess my take.

And as The Rooster reported in December, Creech also admitted to kicking his daughter off his free state-sponsored healthcare days before Christmas. Creech defended his actions by saying his daughter didn’t want anything to do with him as a parent.

When we spoke in December, Creech said that he hadn’t spoken to his daughters in over three years, which coincidentally is the exact time from when the daughter alleges Creech and his erect penis got into bed with her.

I’d have more sympathy for Creech’s complaints about litigating deeply personal family matters in public if he hadn’t spent large swaths of his career railing against transgender people and trying to ban libraries from putting tampon dispensers in men’s rooms.

But that’s a topic for another day.

The Rooster also obtained a redacted audio file of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation interviewing Creech about the allegations in 2024:

The Rooster also obtained the redacted audio file of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation interviewing State Rep. Phil Plummer (R-Vandalia) about the allegations in 2024:

You can download those files here for posterity.

As I told Creech, I believe two things to be true. I think it’s, at best, incredibly creepy behavior for a father to lie in bed with his teenage daughter while only wearing underwear.

I don’t believe it’s normal for parents to do that, even ones that might make a habit of routinely walking around the house in their underwear.

However, I also believe that Plummer pushed these allegations out of spite against a future opponent for a State Senate seat. Because if that weren’t true, he would have leaked this information to the press last summer instead of sitting on it until it became apparent that Creech would run for the State Senate.

Because it’s worth asking, when did Speaker Matt Huffman learn about the allegations against Creech? From my vantage point, it appears that Huffman didn’t have a problem with the alleged behavior until it became clear the scandal was about to become public.

I missed Plummer yesterday before the House session. But I’ll be making time for him after committee meetings next week. He has some questions to answer about that timeline on behalf of House leadership.

It would appear that Congresswoman Joyce Beatty is leaving office sooner rather than later

Left to right: Congresswoman Emilia Sykes (D-Akron) and her husband, Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce, on an AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel in August 2023.