Shawnee State

SHAWNEE STATE UNIVERSITY’S UNCHALLENGEABLE

CANDIDATE FOR THE HALL OF SHAME

Editor’s Note: Larry Mangus holds the dishonor of being the cruelest man on campus. Ex-President Clive Veri recruited him to Shawnee State University (SSU) during the dark days of the late nineties when the buzzards were circling over the campus. The corruption of the Clive Veri administration was exuding a disgusting and revolting stench that could be smelled all the way to the State House in Columbus.

Things were falling apart in 1996 for Clive Veri and his group of local business and political cronies. The Gang was in trouble. Help was needed to stop the Shawnee Sentinel from publishing the truth about what was happening at SSU.

A call went out for a "hit-man." Larry Mangus, a well-traveled college administrator answered the call from Bluefield College, West Virginia.

About the time Lil’ Larry slithered onto the campus in 1996 the Vice President of Finance David Creamer had suddenly quit his $80,000 a year job and fled to Alaska in December.

A $436,000 insurance fraud had been perpetrated against an insurance company as David Creamer, SSU’s chief financial officer, had claimed that the bursar had taken that amount. The bonding insurance paid the university the amount of $436,000 that David Creamer claimed was taken by the bursar. The bursar, John Welton, was sentenced to prison for one year. Two years later a student reporter, while researching the case, discovered the fraud when he uncovered the true audit, not the audit that had been submitted to the state.

The Shawnee Sentinel published the true audit. The young reporter published the report only after seeking the advice of his Journalism Professor. A crime far more terrible than theft had been committed by the SSU Vice President of Finance David Creamer; an innocent man had been sent to prison so Creamer could cover his own inadequacies. David Creamer left town first; many others were to swiftly follow.

The money was not missing; the young bursar had been wrongfully sent to prison so the administration could collect enough funds from the bonding insurance company to cover wasteful, over-spending by the administration and the board of trustees. The Vice-President of Finance had failed to properly control the university funds. The student journalists had uncovered a montrous scandal.

VERI’S UNIVERSITY GANG TROUBLED

The University Gang was in trouble. The little Shawnee Sentinel continued to publish stories of real thefts on campus, articles on discrimination and sexual harassment of students and employees. Also published were photos of drunken parties on campus attended by many of the local elite high-society drunks, and a few members of the board of trustees who relished good whiskey, particularly if they didn’t have to pay for the drinks.

A story of a birthday party, complete with photos, in November 1997 at the Vern Riffe Arts Center for Board of Trustees Member George Claytor was published. This party employed a speedy, professional bartender who served top-shelf fine whiskey. The finest food was served to George Claytor’s 140 guests, all paid for by the University.

The local cultured, high-society Veri gang associated with SSU often was treated at the University and had developed a fond taste for participating in the consumption of fine food and intoxicating drinks, often paid for from the campus treasury.

However, they never became fond of the exposure of their ravenous feasts at SSU as published by the Shawnee Sentinel. The truthful reporting of their drunken activities was not tasty to them.

In late 1994, when the monster bonding fraud was beginning to be suspected by too many people, the Board of Trustees had hired Colonel Stephen P. Donohue as a full-time criminal defense lawyer to keep themselves and President Veri out of prison. Attorney Donohue, a brilliant honor grad of West Point and a combat veteran of 200 fighter plane missions in Vietnam, performed well.

None of the Veri Gang went to prison, but Veri and many others soon found other locations more desirable places to be than Portsmouth. George Claytor, owner of a local discount store, left the state. Claytor had exclusive rights to on-campus jewelry sales. As a member of the Board of Trustees he voted to ban the Shawnee Sentinel newspaper from the public campus.

The Shawnee Sentinel was upsetting the SSU public hog trough that many of the corrupt local merchants, bankers, and university officials were feeding in. Some of the looters had all four feet in the trough. The Shawnee Sentinel had to be stopped before some of the ‘great ones’ did go up the river.

Attorney Stephen P. Donohue was not at the campus when the $436,000 bonding fraud occurred. He was hired over a year after the fraud when the top administrators became worried about their own liberty and freedom.

Lawyer Donohue was also no party to the administration’s war against the Sentinel. To his eternal credit Stephen P. Donohue defended the constitutional rights of the Shawnee Sentinel’s to publish.

Larry Mangus was called in as the hired gun. Mangus, a nondescript, balding little oppressor didn’t actually kill anyone directly, but he tried. He did get the board of trustees to ban the tiny Shawnee Sentiinel newspaper from the campus; he officially and wrongfully abused many of the students that were with the little newspaper. He was also a tyrant to many students that were not members of the newspaper staff.

One case had tragic results for a young student Mangus repeatedly wronged. The details are too sad, and hurtful to write.

On campus Larry was careful to keep others of his ilk around him; he liked to have a body guard. He appeared to be physically afraid of many of the young students he had damaged.

He did perform one bold deed. One rainy afternoon Lil’ Larry Mangus attempted to run over and kill the young black Shawnee Sentinel editor in the East parking lot, as attested to by several witnesses. However, A. Craig Bennett, the 20-year-old agile editor was able to move quickly and avoided being run down by Lil’ Larry’s big Buick.

The attempted run-down of the Shawnee Sentinel Editor occurred soon after the Sentinel published an exposure of theft in office by Mangus. (Larry was never prosecuted). Students sued Mangus in Common Pleas Court for violations of Constitutional Rights. The Board of Trustees hired the best legal counsel available to save Mangus and the University from the rightful consequences of Mangus’ contemptible actions.

Larry Mangus was never liked by many of the students. As one student said, "It’s easy to dislike Larry Mangus, but you’ve really got to get to know him awhile before you learn to hate him."

With the above note, perhaps you can understand why Mangus would fatally cripple a helpless kitten.