"Concerns were raised about Bohn’s conduct at Cincinnati, where he worked before he was hired by USC.
Former Cincinnati head athletic trainer Robb Williams told The Times that he saw Bohn make unwanted physical contact with women on several occasions, including touching their shoulders or backs in a way that made them visibly uncomfortable.
Bohn did not respond to questions about Williams.
Kim McGraw, who served as director of business affairs within Cincinnati athletics from 2009 to 2019, said she saw Bohn make unwanted physical contact with women, including squeezing their shoulders and putting his arm around them. She said the interactions she witnessed made “her skin crawl” and made the women visibly uncomfortable.
Bohn did not immediately respond to questions about McGraw.
Mike Bohn speaks at a news conference after being introduced as Cincinnati's athletic director in February 2014.
Two Cincinnati athletic department employees said they heard Bohn regularly comment on a lesbian colleague’s sexual orientation.
Often, McGraw said, Bohn wasn’t present in the department at all. She said she communicated that concern to Cincinnati’s Office of the Controller months before Bohn’s departure.
By that point, she’d already shared her account of what she believed to be inequitable treatment from Bohn with a Title IX officer. Among the issues she shared was her belief Bohn treated her inequitably in offering larger percentage pay raises to two men she worked with, when the three had split a departing supervisor’s responsibilities equally among them.
McGraw said she confronted Bohn in February 2017 and later shared her account with a Title IX officer, but said she opted not to file a formal complaint. She said she retired from the department in 2019, two years earlier than she’d originally planned.
She was one of five women who interacted with Bohn at Cincinnati who told The Times he created a workplace that was hostile, anxious and toxic for women.
At Cincinnati, staffers were stunned he managed to make his way west.
“We all felt as a staff he’d eventually be gone,” Williams said. “We had no idea he’d end up at USC.”
Mike Bohn’s resignation comes a day after The Times asked him and USC about internal criticism of his management of the athletics department.
www.latimes.com