Cassell, who worked transporting prisoners to and from court, had met a woman who was allegedly named “Ashlee” online (on “CraigsList”) and had agreed to meet her the Carefree Inn in Elyria, Ohio after work for “sex for pay”.
Now some would call this “prostitution” but others would argue that that it was nothing more than two (2) folks who were cosmically connected, who drifted toward one another in cyber-space and who were destined to come into physical contact at a set of GPS coordinates…… to have sex for money…. Okay, so it’s prostitution… but is it?
Because what it turned out to be was a robbery.
When Cassell arrived at the the Carefree Inn he was rushed and attacked by three (3) men, choked until he was unconscious and had his wallet and a personal handgun stolen. Now the four (4) suspected – pictured below (top left is 27 y/o Dominique Mincy, top right is 21 y/o Jordan Marquez, bottom left is 39 y/o Raymond Smith and bottom right is 43 y/o Dawn Gibson) – have been indicted.
Dominique Mincy (top left) has been charged with s charged with aggravated robbery, theft, tampering with evidence, assault and having weapons while under disability; Jordan Marquez (top right) has been charged with aggravated robbery, theft, tampering with evidence and assault; Raymond Smith (bottom left) has been charged with aggravated robbery, compelling prostitution, theft, tampering with evidence, promoting prostitution, assault and having weapons while under disability; Dawn Gibson (bottom right) has been charged with aggravated robbery; and, the creme-de-la-creme…. now FORMER Lorain County, Ohio Sheriff’s Deputy Christopher Cassell (he resigned after this incident surfaced) was also charged with soliciting prostitution and was given a suspended sixty (60) day jail sentence and fined $250.00. All three (3) male attackers are being held at the Lorain County Jail and the lone female is free on bond. Btw, the handgun that was taken was recovered by police (although from where and under what circumstances I do not know).
Memo to the Folks: Prostitution is one of those “crimes” which should not be “criminal”; rather it should be decriminalized, regulated and taxed. The State Department of Health (NOT the feds) should be issuing licenses, based upon application, annual fees and periodic (quarterly) medical clearance (including blood work and STD testing), as well as taxing “services” as they do in any other industry (the parallel being identical to marijuana decriminalization). In light of the fact that people are going to do what they are going to do anyhow (especially when it comes to consensual activity) decriminalized and regulated prostitution is a win-win for the parties, and for society as well. It makes no sense that a person can meet another person (gender is irrelevant at this stage of the game) and that they can proceed to have consensual sexual relations after one buys dinner or drinks for the other, yet the same two people cannot skip the societal foreplay, exchange the cash between themselves and get down to foreplay. However… this has nothing to do with robbery. What happened here is both a CraigsList and a LawEnforcement FAIL!
https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelhaberlaw / http://habercriminallaw.blogspot.com
-
Top notch, very skilled, and highly attentive. Mr. Haber is a fantastic criminal defense attorney. 
- Thanks again. You are second to none when it comes to defending your clients. For that, I thank you
-
