Three days ago, Cleveland Museum of Art director David Franklin abruptly resigned, effective immediately, from his post at the prestigious organization for personal reasons.
Scene was the first to give a glance into those personal reasons last night: Franklin had an affair with a CMA staffer (whose name we will not use) and she committed suicide five months ago.
From conversations with those close to the young lady and the museum, we now know that trustees were well aware of the affair at least at the time of her death, and probably before. “An open secret,” is how one person described the relationship, which began sometime around January 2012. Another source told us that Franklin’s wife was well aware of his wandering eye.
The police report from night of the incident includes more than a few tidbits of information relevant to the story and more than a few tidbits that raise questions.
David Franklin himself was the one who discovered the young lady’s body sometime around midnight that evening and made the calls to authorities. Cleveland Heights police responded.
There was no suicide note, according to the police report. The autopsy report notes cause of death as asphyxiation due to hanging. The death was ruled a suicide.
Franklin told investigators he received a text message earlier in the night at around 8 p.m. the night before (Saturday, April 27) which said the young lady was “depressed from work” He went to the apartment where, he relayed to authorities, he did not get an answer at the front door but found the back door unlocked.
The police report notes that two items — the woman’s iPhone, from which she had texted Franklin the night before earlier in the evening, and a digital camera — were missing from the apartment and have not been found.
The Plain Dealer, whose publisher, Terry Egger, is a Cleveland Museum of Art trustee, has yet to report on the nature of the “personal reasons” detailed above, though a reporter at the paper does have the same copy of the police report that we do. Meanwhile, Steven Litt continues to publish glowing articles quoting museum spokespeople and trustees gushing about the future of the organization. Egger and Litt have yet to respond to requests for comment.
Know more? Contact sallard@clevescene.com.
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2013.
thank you for performing investigative journalism.
Wow…Beyond sad…And a black eye for the Museum of Art…
There is a lot more truth to come.
HolyBallz.
thank you clevescene for doing what journalist do – beat the sidewalks, put an ear to those who want to talk, do the research and background history, and more importantly – PUBLISH IT!
it is shameful that the Plain Dealer and Mr. Litt are now just another vehicle of restating whatever the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Board wants to be stated – corporate PR/Marketing at its worse.
And of course, censorship of the facts for PD readers and the Cleveland/Art world community at large. As a member of the CMA for many years, I will NOT be renewing my membership next year.
This Board who obviously believed they could mislead us is not deserving of my support.
AND a big thank you to clevescene! You are keeping our faith in investigative journalism alive!
Sometimes a sponge-bath isn’t enough and you gotta quit your job.
meanwhile across the street at the CWRU School of Law….
I spoke to an employee today while I was at CMA and they were all told in separate little groups by “interim” director Fred Bidwell that Franklin left for “private” reasons and the reasons are to remain private. Good luck with that and THANK YOU Scene magazine for not getting the memo and for always doing the investigations the pathetic PD is soooo afraid to do.
Why not include any INVESTIGATION done by CH police?
i believe dee perry will be interviewing Mr. Litt on PBS APPLAUSE show on Thurs. Oct. 24. Please email Ms. Perry today and ask her to ask Mr. Litt the truth finding journalism questions we all want to be asked and answered regarding this sad situation at the CMA leadership level. The CMA Board and Mr. Bitwell may believe and enforce censorship within its institution but it has no right to expect that from the rest of us. And doesn’t the CMA receive federal and state and city monies – our tax dollars to operate?
Steve Litt is not the gossip reporter–he’s the guy who reports on urban planning, architecture and art. He wouldn’t write about the alleged affair–that’s the duty of some other reporter at the PD. I agree that the PD is not going to touch this, but don’t blame Litt. Its not his beat.
The Bidwells were friends with the young woman in this story. She even modeled for Laura Bidwell. So any reports that the upper level at the CMA saying they were surprised by all of this it’s total BS.
to JMedina – this is not about gossip. this is about the significance of the abrupt resignation of one of the city’s premiere public institutions and the unwillingness/censorship of the Board to fully disclose the reasons for this resignation. that is called accountability and public stewardship, something the CMA Board in its self-contained/elitist response to this sad situation has chosen to abandon.
if the PD told Litt to report on the resignation does that not involve using his journalistic training/skills to report on the full story – wherever it may lead? that is the second component to this- the apparent collusion of the PD to NOT get to the real story here, which is obvious to so many of us – why the resignation and why the secrecy over the cause of the resignation. this is not gossip, but news. or has cleveland forgotten what good investigative journalism really is about?
Can we say “20/20 Investigations” or “60 minutes” material? When I read about his resignation, I just knew that there was A LOT more to the story! Over the years I never really thought of the Scene as being a credible news outlet, but I must say that they did a great job on this! Way to go! Maybe the Plain Dealer just didn’t have the reports to cover the story adequately, especially since they went to three days a week publishing and all the layoffs they had recently?
i want to know did the cellphone which holds evidence to support franklins story and the camera did they grow legs?
i notice not anyone mentioned that hmm smh
No suicide note, back door “open” (after he let himself in with a key?), “depressed” from work (according to DF, NOTHING to do with him of course her married boyfriend) added to the missing cellphone and camera. Looks the the PD and the CMA board not the only ones giving him a free pass. CH police??? Car 54 where are you? And that very glamorous pretend Vogue cover taken by MRS. Fred Bidwell of the young woman….it was all fun until it wasn’t
Suicide and depression are both legitimately private matters. An administrator’s relationship with an employee may be against policy, but is not illegal. There is tragedy here, and some titillating details if you’re a bit voyeuristic and prurient, but not a crime. My guess would be the Plain Dealer is balancing these concerns and working on a detailed investigative story, not breathlessly regurgitating rumors and a publicly available police report — and certainly not gagged by the publisher.
Some weak stuff here — in the comments, but also in the reporting. In general, I’m dismayed at the lack if respect for this woman’s family, who have to sit and read this giggling tripe in the middle of a sad and senseless time.
Well, if it was a suicide then the “victim” also happens to be the person who committed the aggressive act of violence — the act of self-murder. It is wrong to portray people in the lives of self-murderers as the ones who victimized the person who committed suicide. The self-murderer is the murderer and the people in the self-murderers lives who are harmed by that aggressive and selfish act are the victims.
to MarkSmith – unfortunately you are not focusing on the real story here.
We all agree that the CMA situation is sad, tragic. No one is commenting negatively or unsympathetically about what happened, and yes, it is personal.
But the personal becomes public and political when a not totally honest/transparent/truthful response occurs and is presented as fact to the public.
That is what is outraging the readership of the PD and clevescene. And rightly so.
The Board of the CMA has a public, stewardship, fudiciary responsibility to the public, its staff and its donors, as the CMA is a nonprofit organization that also receives public tax dollars.
Its Board has not been forthcoming or fully transparent in acknowleding the reasons for the abrupt resignation of Mr. Franklin. This level of sudden and abrupt resignation is underheard of in the world of museum nonprofits. Like it or not, it is shocking and it is newsworthy.
The CMA is not a small nonprofit or small private business where maybe the director’s resignation would not cause much impact outside the work place.
This is the CMA, perhaps the greatest cultural asset in NE Ohio and among the top 10 museums in the USA. The CMA is an economic engine in NE Ohio and any abrupt without notice resignation of its Director has impact far and wide in the region. Unplanned resignations at this level of management do not happen without some wrong-doing or rarely, personal health issues. The PD and other news organizations have the responsibility to report the who/what/where/why of the resignation and should not be censored or told to just restate the PR/Marketing story the CMA has created.
To deliberately censor that information and to “re-write” the story, is what this CMA Board is trying to do, with the apparent collusion of the limited and non-investigative reporting done by the PD.
Whatever the story is, the public deserves and is fully entitled to the truth – all of it – as tragic or sensational as it may be.
Reporting the truth/the facts is not being disrespectful to the family – this is what news coverage/investigation should be about.
That is all we are asking and that is why there is outrage at how the PD, Mr. Litt, and the CMA Board have failed in their responsibilities to provide the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
What you refer to as “the weak stuff here” is their desire to censor/keep hidden the news, not the reporting of the cause/reasons for such an unplanned/abrupt resignation of the Director of one of the most important institutions in NE Ohio. That is real news!
These comments remind me why I left Ohio and won’t go back.
Don’t you people have anything else going on in your lives that’s more important than vicariously peering into other people’s bedrooms? No, you do not deserve an honest answer as to why he resigned; it doesn’t affect you in any way. That’s just a ridiculous excuse for your ongoing voyeurism.
Do yourselves a favor: Quit spending your time noticing what other people do. Do something worth noticing.
We need to know more. There are still too many questions left unanswered. What are the results of the autopsy? It seems very odd that a young women would kill herself this way with no note. Does she have a history of mental illness? Why is her phone and camera missing? Has there been a subpoena for the phone records? Was there evidence of sexual intercourse with the young lady? If these questions were not asked, why not?
Why is the board choosing an acting director from its inner circle, something that is not common practice even for CMA. What is the real reason Mr Franklin is stepping down, 5 months later?
We need more answers!!
If the board knew about the affair with the subordinate as it was going on in 2012, why wasn’t he canned then?
Why did they keep him on even after her demise?
What precipitated booting him out this week?
How did the board arrive at covering Mr. Franklin’s professional butt when it is clear he should never allowed to be in a position of authority again?
Why is the Plain Dealer avoiding the story?
If the contract for the Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art does not include a clause that states a sexual relationship with an employee is cause for dismissal, than it should. This is completely inappropriate behavior that should not be allowed. The CMA is one of the top ten art museums in the country and we deserve a director who can keep his hands off of the staff. Also, this guy did something questionable at his last job in Ottawa and actually disappeared for a time! That should’ve been a red flag that he is not mentally stable and therefore not appropriate for such a high level position. Mr. Bidwell is in no way qualified to be interim director. I fear for the future of our much beloved art museum with such poor decision making by the Board!
You know they sell these types of stories in big stores that have lots of books, that you can buy! Or, you can even go to these cool buildings that let you just borrow the books and come back and get more for free! (Your tax dollars pay for those too, but who cares because there’s not juicy business about the Director of the Cleveland Public Library). There are plenty of fictitious stories to sink your teeth into without dragging the memory of the dead through the mud because we feel like we’re entitled to know the details of someones personal life due to their job title. No crimes were committed here. It was a personal decision. The end. It does not affect the quality of the fine arts within the museum (that’s why its there you know) or its community outreach. Over 400 employees make up CMA, this one person does not break the institution. Also, it is not the boards decision to publicize anyone’s personal business, especially if it takes away from the real purpose that CMA exist (Its not to provide juicy stories. I promise).
This story is not investigative journalism, it’s editorialized speculation–total amateur hour. This is why I left Cleveland–because of morons like you and the idiots that think you are doing a community service! Your reporting could barely muster the standards of a cheap grocery store tabloid.
This just in: Monkey gets a boner at zoo. You better hop on it before the story goes limp.
Maybe after a few more Scene articles Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer, and most importantly, The Cleveland Museum of Art will cop to what really happened here, and that is this: An amazing person, who loved and was unimaginably passionate about the incredible work she was doing at CMA was seduced by the philandering Dr. Franklin, her superior, entered into a consensual relationship with him and had her life and work ruined by the administration and board at CMA when they found out about the relationship(imagine the rage of Cinderella’s step-mother when she was found to be flirting with the land’s beloved Prince). Knowing they couldn’t fire her, they decided to do what they thought best for Dr. Franklin and themselves, and made Christina’s life an absolute hell until she lost all hope for her future at the museum and in the field, was set up with the Director gig at ChamberFest and left. It wasn’t long before Dr. Franklin himself felt the pressure to distance himself from her, leaving her with the ruins that he waltzed her into as he tip-toed back to his throne and an attempt to make nice at home. I urge any and all concerned citizens and museum members to push for an official review of what really happened here and to boycott this institution until one is provided. Every single member of that Board and perhaps more importantly, the administration needs to have their job put under review. CMA needs to get back to being an art museum instead of a back-door secret society whose political dealings end in suffering and death. They can start with an apology and some sort of compensation offered to this poor girl’s family.
yes, because when someone dies and it’s all hush-hush, the general public is a bunch of assholes for being suspicious. and darn those reporters too, for poking their nose where it doesn’t belong, how dare they investigate things!
i doubt the PD would have released its newest article on the story if scene hadn’t speculated…now that’s a real shame. yes, the death is terrible and may or may not have anything to do with Mr. Franklin=we’ll simply never know. that being said, the truth needed to have come out to expose this shady character—look at this guy’s track record.
Whee were you guys when Robert Chumbley suddenly resigned in 2005 as director of now-defunct Cleveland Opera? Or in the absence of a some “cherchez la femme” there is no story???
Some of you talk as if the woman who had the affair with a married man and then committed the act of self-murder was a 14 year old school girl. Say what you want a
bout a married man having an affair with an underling (many of you were quite okay with it when Bill Clinton did it) but it is not fair to blame him for someone deciding to kill herself. In a suicide the “victim” and the “murderer” are merged into one. She made that decision and perhaps she did so to harm people in her life. You feel sorry for her because she is the victim of her own aggressive act, but had she killed him instead would you be saying the same?
Mr. Smith said “An administrator’s relationship with an employee may be against policy, but is not illegal.” SMARTEN UP! I am a lawyer who has BEGGED people not to have affairs with others who work for them or with them. Do you realize that Sexual Harassment lawsuits are so plentiful these days, that companies are buying special insurance if sued for this, to cover their costs?? This Macho Man may have been a Renaissance scholar, but he acts like he is DIRT DUMB, and, like SO many other professional, otherwise bright people I know, they look at me like I am from the Middle Ages when I beg them to STOP having these affairs. AND in this case, as the Board/Trustees KNEW of the affair, a lawsuit including the Board and Museum will not be difficult to prove. And yes, Smith, this IS our business – as this museum does get public grants, and also does not have to pay taxes. Just how much money will a lawsuit cost us? As someone who loves that museum, and hates to see otherwise smart people doing the MOST foolish, dumb things, I am just shaking my head. Wake Up.
Even from this guy’s picture in this article, you can just tell he’s a douchebag.
By having an affair with a young woman who he knew was, sensitive, depressed and taking drugs…he may as well have put the noose around her neck.
Shame on all of you who say “mind your own business” this is the attitude that allows our daughters to continue to be raped and murdered.