The town of Portsmouth, Ohio appears to have a history of public officials using their positions of power to sexually exploit women and underage girls and traffick them around the country.

https://www.fox19.com/2020/03/30/ohio-ag-seeks-info-portsmouth-attorney-amid-reports-sex-trafficking-investigation/

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is turning to the public for help as it continues to investigate a Portsmouth attorney and former elected official.

The AG’s Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is asking anyone “with information about suspicious activity involving Michael Mearan” to call 1-855-BCI-OHIO (855-224-6446) or file a tip anonymously online

Last week, BCI assisted local authorities conduct a search of Mearan’s office near the Scioto County Courthouse, according to a news release.

It’s part of an ongoing investigation with Portsmouth police after reports he is a key player in a sex trafficking ring, FOX19 NOW has confirmed.

In late 2018, the Cincinnati Enquirer investigated rumors of Mearan being involved in the trafficking of women for sexual purposes and talked to women who claimed they were prostituted to officials in return for a number of things including money and reduced sentences in criminal cases.

[A] document, obtained by The Enquirer in early 2018, includes accounts of Mearan sending women to Florida and other states to have sex for money.

That investigation resulted in eight drug convictions, but Mearan was never charged.

Mearan's web site for his attorney practice:

https://www.mearanlaw.net/

Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190212195438/https://www.mearanlaw.net/

Previous story on the investigation with further details:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/03/26/michael-mearan-portsmouth-ohio-detained-home-searched/5082518002/

The prosecution is handled by Angela Canepa at the state attorney general’s office of special prosecutions.

Ten women said they worked as prostitutes for Mearan, and several of them said they traveled to numerous states to have sex for money at his behest.

The women told the Enquirer that Mearan’s operation included some of the most powerful men in Scioto County as customers and participants. One said she slept with a former police chief for money.

Three others said they were approached by Mearan or others to perform sexual favors for now-retired Scioto County Common Pleas Court Judge William Marshall in exchange for lighter sentences in their criminal cases.

That opened an investigation by the Ohio Public Defender’s office into Marshall’s conduct and whether the results in as many as 3,000 criminal cases he oversaw should be reexamined.

[A previous] investigation resulted in eight drug convictions, but Mearan was not charged. The DEA said it handed any notes on Mearan over to the FBI, and it is not clear what happened after that.

The family of Megan Lancaster, a Portsmouth prostitute who went missing in 2013, has worked for years to get answers about her disappearance, including whether Mearan is connected.

The town of Portsmouth, Ohio has a history of other sex crimes, some involving underage victims.

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/09/05/sex-trafficking-ohio-women-allege-probation-officer-abused-power/2219063001/

Former Portsmouth city probation officials accused of sex misconduct and trafficking in underage girls

A one-way bus ticket and the promise of a modeling contract.

It was the escape Linda Mills had long sought from a life she said was filled with physical and sexual abuse.

Instead, Mills said she was trafficked at age 15, sent to be a prostitute in Chicago by a member of local law enforcement.

Mills is one of four women to accuse [Phil] Malone or his brother, Mark Malone, of inappropriate sexual conduct or exchanging sexual favors for light treatment from the Portsmouth City Probation Department, where they both worked.

Mills said her maternal grandfather abused her from a very young age, raping her repeatedly throughout her childhood.

She began posing nude for Phil Malone, who soon said he had lined up a modeling contract for her in Chicago. Another man met her at the bus station, and within hours, she was told she needed to have sex with him “so he could see what he could sell.”

Several other girls' stories of grooming and exploitation are included in the above story.

An earlier story about this situation in Portsmouth:

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/03/21/sex-trafficking-trapped-and-trafficked-portsmouth-ohio/3230992002/