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Several women say they were lured into an alleged sex trafficking ring run by a local defense attorney in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Cincinnati Enquirer

CINCINNATI – For more than 15 years, alleged victims of Michael Mearan felt like they were screaming into the void. 

In voices both strained with emotion and seemingly hardened with trauma, they stepped forward – cautiously, with trepidation – to level their allegations: that Mearan, a former Portsmouth, Ohio, city councilman and still-practicing attorney, trapped them in a cycle of drug abuse and sexual servitude. 

They told their stories to agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. To FBI investigators. To journalists with The (Cincinnati) Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network. The worst that came of it were the convictions of eight defendants who pleaded guilty to drug charges – and none of those eight were Mearan.

On Friday, everything changed. After decades of rumors and investigations, Mearan was arrested on human trafficking, racketeering and related charges. He’s expected to be arraigned in Scioto County Common Pleas Court on Monday. 

Mearan, 74, has previously denied having anything to do with trafficking, prostitution or drugs.

Michael Mearan (Photo: Provided/Scioto County Jail)

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said otherwise. 

“If Dante were around, he’d invent an eighth circle of hell for this guy,” he told The Enquirer late Friday, hours after Mearan was arrested outside of his Portsmouth office on 18 felony charges.

“His victims were utterly powerless. One of the problems with this case is everyone thought Mr. Mearan was untouchable. The victims were reluctant to come forward because they thought nothing would ever happen to him, but something could happen to them.”

March 21: Drugs, sex trafficking and missing women: Small Ohio town haunted by dark allegations

March 26: Police raid home of former Ohio councilman accused in sex trafficking ring

Some women did come forward, however – including Heather Hren, who spoke with Enquirer reporters for an investigation that ran in two parts published in March 2019 and September 2019. She said Mearan had arranged for her to have sex with a Cincinnati doctor for $200 and arranged for a probation officer to take nude photos of her, among other allegations.

Mearan, she said, “trafficked me to his friends or pimped me out.” 

Heather Hren, 37, was 24 when she says she first started working for Michael Mearan, a prominent local attorney and city councilman. She said over the next couple years Mearan trafficked her to his friends in Portsmouth and out of state. (Photo: Liz Dufour/The Enquirer)

Hren was one of 10 women initially interviewed by The Enquirer last year, most of whom asked that their names not be published. The newspaper also pored through hundreds of investigative documents, including arrest and court records, and interviewed an additional 50 people for the project.

Here’s what the women alleged: Mearan, as a prominent attorney, would represent women facing drug charges. The lawyer promised them lenient sentences from judges he knew and parole officers willing to ignore probation requirements, but there was a catch: The women had to agree to have sex for money. 

The sexual liaisons allegedly occurred in Portsmouth, Cincinnati and Columbus, but also outside of Ohio. The Enquirer was told of sex-for-money trips to New York, New Jersey, Louisiana and Florida. 

The women were paid anywhere between $200 and $2,000 per encounter, and in some of the instances, Mearan himself handled the payment, they said. 

The Enquirer interviewed Mearan twice during the investigation. He consistently denied the allegations. At one point he said he didn’t know what a sex trafficker was and asked for a definition.

Mearan’s home was raided this spring, a year after the newspaper’s initial report, by agents with the Ohio Bureau of Investigation. At the time, Mearan told reporters that any investigation into him would be fruitless because he led a “boring life.”

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law firm, the website for which describes him as accomplished, humble and passionate, and says he “has created quite the reputation for himself during his years of practice.” 

The 18 felony charges Mearan faces include human trafficking and compelling prostitution, and stem from activity between 2003 and 2018 involving six women. If convicted of all charges, he faces more than 70 years in prison. 

Yost said now that Mearan has been charged, other victims may feel safe enough to come forward. He said he was impressed by the six women who are already a part of the case for their strength and resilience.

“When we called today and went around and talked to them to let them know… there was a deluge of tears,” Yost said. “They never thought it would happen.”

Contributing: Jackie Borchardt

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More women have come forward, accusing men in Portsmouth, Ohio, of using their position of power, to take nude photos and sex traffic them.

Cincinnati Enquirer

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