Ohio Politician Caught in Prostitution Sting Swears He Was Just Delivering Note From Old Chinese Man He Met at Frisch's Big Boy
Filed under: You cannot make this stuff up.
Residents of the southern Ohio city of Mason can rest assured that their tax dollars are being utterly wasted all around. While staking out a hotel room suspected of hosting prostitution activity, local police observed Mason City Councilman Rich Cox entering and, about 15 minutes later, leaving. Surprise, surprise, Mason Police Chief Ron Ferrell said he does not expect charges to be filed against Councilman Cox.
Of course, the fewer people charged for consensual commercial sex, the better; and besides, it doesn't seem like there's enough evidence against Cox anyway. Yet somehow I suspect that not everyone in Cox's circumstances would get such fair treatment from the city police.
In an interview with Cincinnati newspaper The Enquirer, the councilman offered up an astoundingly far-fetched explanation for what he was doing at the hotel, along with a dose of self-righteous indignation about the whole business for good measure:
The council member told The Enquirer on Wednesday he visited the Super 8 on Kings Mills Road June 11 to pass a note to a Chinese woman whose father he met at a nearby Verizon Wireless store.
"No good deed goes unpunished," he said.
Cox said the father could not speak English well, and the note was written in a foreign language, but he could tell the man was concerned about his daughter. He said the man's car was broken down.
"It was a weird conversation," Cox said.
In video obtained by The Enquirer, Cox told police he had met the man at Frisch's Big Boy and mentioned nothing about a handwritten note.
Chief Farrell said detectives would continue to monitor the hotel for potential human trafficking.
