COLUMBUS, Ohio - Candidates for Ohio Governor are calling on Ohio Supreme Court Justice and gubernatorial contender William O'Neill to resign over a Facebook post volunteering candid details of his sexual past.
Former state Rep. Connie Pillich, a fellow Democrat, condemned O'Neill Friday for "joking and trivializing sexual assault". In a statement, Pillich said that O'Neill has been a friend and donated to her campaign, but that she felt his post trivialized sexual assault. "Justice O'Neill should resign from the bench and immediately cease his campaign for governor. I will be donating his contributions to organizations helping women," Pillich wrote.
In a Facebook post, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, another Democratic gubernatorial candidate, called the statement ridiculous and called for more efforts to protect women from harassment.
"This is a ridiculous comment by someone who is supposed to be a professional. It is not the way I feel as a straight man. He is not speaking 'on behalf of all heterosexual males.' We need to create channels for reporting & protect women from harassment, rather than bragging about having sex with them.Before today I thought that would go without saying," Schiavoni wrote.