Former Joplin Globe editor targeted in criminal probe

The bad times for former Joplin Globe Editor Edgar Simpson are far from over.

Simpson, who resigned under pressure from his $100,000+ a year job as chief of staff for Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, is one of a number of people, including Dann himself, who are the target of a criminal probe, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

One key figure in the scandals surrounding Dann, his general services director Anthony Gutierrez pleaded gulity Aug. 24 to two felony and four misdemeanor charges and is expected to provide testimony against others in Dann's orbit.

The Ohio Ethics Commission noted unders who are under investigation, including Dann's wife and Simpson, who are old friends dating back to their time working together on a Warren, Ohio, newspaper. The investigations into those two were described in the article:

• Alyssa Lenhoff, Dann's wife and the director of the journalism program at Youngstown State University. Investigators suspect that she might have misused her relationship with Dann to help the university obtain a $6,500 grant from the attorney general's office and that her private dishware company received money from Dann's officeholder transition account.

• Edgar Simpson, a close friend of Lenhoff's and Dann's who served as Dann's chief of staff. The investigation into Simpson focuses on his role in helping Lenhoff's university obtain the grant.