Ohio Civil Rights Commission Columbus Regional Office

Carrie Gutowski

Great people who care about civil rights.

Jeff Poston

I don't suggest going to the ohio civil rights commision for help. I went to them for help and was disappointed in the outcome.I don't feel that they do a very good job investigating cases. I lost my house,my car, my bills were so far behind. And in the end I lost everything due to poor investigating.

Mr. Jones

(Full disclosure: I am a one legged handicapped white man meeting with a African-American woman "investigator" lawyer) I went to the OCRC June 2017. I had received a letter from them in regards to a handicapped rights issue that I had inquired about a month earlier. The letter told me to come downtown to their office to file a "discrimination complaint" against the offending party to help solve the issue. Everybody was very nice to me except the "investigator" that they had me talk to. She was a young (maybe mid 30's) African-American woman who despised me before we ever sat down to talk. She took me to a private office and didn't even introduce herself or her title. Within 30 seconds of sitting down with to talk with her, she told me that I had interrupted her and began to lecture me about it. To which I just sat there dumbfounded by her attitude and the obvious chip on her shoulder. Knowing that I hadn't interrupted her and that I had been nothing but respectful and polite to this woman left me confused but I tried to salvage the meeting. So I apologized and told her that I am only there to try to help my situation and in turn, help the situation of other handicapped people too. (I thought we were on the same team?) So I slowed down my speech and thought process to hopefully not offend this woman again because I wanted advocacy and help, not hurt feelings and lectures. But within about two more minutes, I realized that this woman had no intention of helping me or even a remote interest in my situation. Every time I asked her a question she would come back at me with a negative response, tell me why I was wrong, or just remain silent as she glared at me from across the table. So five minutes into this meeting I'm beginning to grow more frustrated because I feel like I am being road blocked by this lady with her growing contempt and animosity for my very presence before her. Then I made my final mistake because I asked her what her job or title was at the commission because I was trying to figure out how this meeting had gone so sideways so fast? And I used the word "just".....as in the question to her, "What is your job title here? Are you just an investigator, a lawyer?" So then she gave me another lecture only this time for much longer about how she wasn't "just this" or "just that" and how I couldn't "just define her" in any way or fashion! So once she finally finished I told her the meeting was done and that I would like to leave. (Because frankly, I didn't want her toxic poison of bigotry and racism to infect me in any way.) To which she stated that I had to sign some paperwork before I left. So I was forced to sign a piece of paper stating that I didn't want to file a discrimination complaint after all which couldn't be further from the truth. What just happened? I felt like I had just been through the ringer by some insane angry African-American woman with an edge to grind on any unsuspecting white person. I signed the piece of paper just to escape the presence of this mentally and emotionally disturbed woman. On the way out I asked her for her name because I knew I would be filing a complaint. She quickly retorted back with the same question to which I replied with my full name and told her it was on the paperwork. (How can you tell me that you took our meeting seriously when you don't even know my name which was clearly written all over the paperwork?) She quickly raised her voice at me as I was close to 50 feet away from her at this point standing at the elevators while I tried to escape and she said as sarcastically and condescendingly as possible, "I hope you have a good evening Mr. Jones". We exchanged glares of disgust as I sarcastically said the same thing back to her. I was hanging on to my temper by a thread at this point as I entered the elevator. On the way home my anger slowly turned to sadness as I wondered what experiences has this smart, beautiful, and intelligent woman been through to behave that way? I think she is probably overworked and underpaid. I hope she was just having a bad day.