Mearan pleads not guilty; bond set at $300,000
Michael Mearan, an attorney and former Portsmouth, Ohio, city councilman, appeared Monday afternoon in Scioto County Common Pleas Court for arraignment on 18 felony charges, including sex trafficking.
Mearan entered a plea of not guilty. A $300,000 bond was set by visiting judge Patricia Cosgrove.
“I think it’s at a point that Mr. Mearan will not be able to bond out,” Mearan’s attorney, Richard Nash, told The Enquirer following the arraignment.
Kadie Lancaster, sister-in-law of Megan Lancaster, who went missing in 2013, is not so sure the bond is enough to keep Mearan behind bars. She believes he was involved in Megan Lancaster’s disappearance. She said the bond “seems kind of low” considering what state prosecutor Jennifer Rausch said she could present if the case goes to trial.
“It was a happy day,” Kadie Lancaster said. “But yet, we’re kind of disappointed in the amount of bond that was set, because we do know he has that.”
Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman said Mearan “always had his own unique way of practicing the law.”
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office agreed to prosecute the case for multiple reasons, Tieman said, including ensuring the community feels “confident in the legal system” considering how long these allegations have been rumored. The latest investigation began two years ago, and Mearan was investigated multiple times before that.
“I’m not going to excuse it. Frankly, if this was going on three decades ago then we should have gotten something done then,” Tieman said.
Mearan, 74, was the focus of an Enquirer investigative report last year into sex trafficking in the small city 100 miles east of Cincinnati along the Ohio River. The Enquirer interviewed Mearan twice during the investigation. He consistently denied the allegations.
Mearan was booked Friday afternoon and held without bond throughout the weekend.
An alleged sex trafficking victim involved with Mearan, who the Enquirer is not naming, said she thought about the image of Mearan – a man she said has been, to a degree, “untouchable” over the years – sitting in jail over the weekend.
On Monday, Mearan stepped off the elevator and entered the courtroom in an orange jumpsuit and pink handcuffs. The cuffs clanked on the wooden desk as he fidgeted in his seat, whispering with Nash behind a white face mask.
Cosgrove and Rausch appeared in court virtually, displayed on two television screens. Mearan and Nash spoke to them through a laptop computer.
Nash asked for a personal recognizance bond after entering a not guilty plea on behalf of Mearan. He noted that no weapons were involved in the charges and cited Mearan’s family ties, employment as an attorney with upcoming hearings, no previous criminal record and character as reasons he should not be considered a flight risk.