WEBVTT - 25 Miles South Part 2 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.360 Welcome to the Piketon Massacre, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:07.680 Katie Studios. Somebody pretty important in Ohio once asked me 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.480 why I was so vested and interested in this case 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:12.600 and in sex trafficking. I had to be honest with 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:14.920 myself and I had to say when I first heard it, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.040 I didn't believe it. I didn't think it was widespread. 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.640 And ever since then it's been like, these women aren't 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:25.159 lying and they deserve all of our attention. This is 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:30.240 the Pikedon Massacre. Returned to Pike County season two, Episode nine, 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.159 twenty five miles South, Part two. I'm Courtney Armstrong, a 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.960 television producer at Katie Studios with Stephanie Lydecker and Jeff Shane. 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:43.040 Throughout the series, we've examined abuses of power by authorities 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:47.800 in Ohio, from law enforcement officials to city councilmen. Investigative 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.960 reporter James Pilcher drew a through line in the cases 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.080 of Pike County, Share of Charlie, reader Michael Moran, and 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.680 the corruption that has infiltrated the Southern Ohio criminal justice system. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:00:59.880 Why do I think this is happening in these kinds 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:04.160 of counties? So much. Either Hey, you had ineffectual or 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:09.320 corrupt or both law enforcement, right, you had a community 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:14.400 or a culture of lawlessness that has descended on upon 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.760 many places in rural America. And I think that's one 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.240 of the reasons nobody's watching. Nobody cares to watch, not 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.960 to enhance or blow up importance of journalists, but if 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:30.840 you don't have some kind of watchdog or somebody holding 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:37.319 officials accountable, it doesn't always work well. In twenty seventeen, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.839 reporter Nicki Blankenship uncovered in affidavit filed by the Drug 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:46.160 Enforcement Agency. The document detailed an FBI investigation into a Portsmouth, 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.320 Ohio lawyer and former city councilman named Michael Moran. It's 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.600 content supported stories Nikki had long heard from area women 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:57.320 who claimed that Moran was involved in sex trafficking and prostitution. 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.560 It should be noted that Michael Moran has strongly denied 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.520 the allegations. So when I got this affidavit, I immediately 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.239 took it to my publisher, my editor, and they want 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:11.520 to prove that it was real, it was authentic, and 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.400 all of this was real, And so I contacted our 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.519 private investigators that I knew had them look into the document. Further, 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:21.560 I called people in court systems that I knew and 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.800 had them looking into it. I verified it over and 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.679 over and over, and ultimately they said that no, we're 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:34.000 not going to publish. I gave my letter of resignation 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:38.799 that day and I said ethical differences and I left. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.320 During the course of her reporting on sex trafficking in 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.720 southern Ohio, the issue had become personal for Nicki. She 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.280 often spoke with the families of Portsmouth women that had 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.480 fallen into prostitution and others whose family members had gone 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.520 missing or been murdered. After her resignation, NICKI had a 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.480 crucial decision to make. I had made a promise to 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.600 the families. I'm tearing up a little bit, but I 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.800 promised these families, and I shouldn't have, as a journalists, 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.440 promised them, but I did. I promised them that I 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:14.959 was going to scream until someone listened. And so when 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.360 I felt like I was just repeatedly being shut down, 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.960 I felt very helpless. I had to do something. I 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.360 had to put it out there some way, and social 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:28.239 media's last way. I knew, even if only local families 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.200 were able to see that, I thought it might help 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.520 them in some way and give them something. And as 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.760 a local journalists, a lot of people locally were on 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:42.360 my Facebook page. So I went ahead and I published it, 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.400 and I went to sleep. When I woke up the 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.800 next morning, I had hundreds, probably thousands of lights on 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.840 that post already and undreds, if not thousands of shares 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:58.160 and messages from everyone. But it carna went crazier than 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:04.480 I expected it too. When you saw the Dai David, 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:09.640 what ran through your head? I was not a bit stunned, 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.080 And people they want me to be stunned, but I wasn't. 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:19.039 That's Katie Lancaster speaking with producer Chris Graves. Katie's best 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.599 friend and sister in law, Megan Lancaster, went missing in 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.599 twenty thirteen. Katie alleges that Megan worked for Michael Moran 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:30.400 as a prostitute. Moran denies these allegations. What went through 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.120 my head is, oh, my gosh, like I'm not the 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.800 only one that sees this, you know, like the FBI 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.479 sees it. Like it was just so just a sense 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:44.240 of relief. News of the Affidavid spread. It soon caught 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.960 the attention of Cincinnati Enquirer investigative editor Bob Strictly, who 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.080 had once worked for the newspaper the Portsmith Daily Times. 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.000 I initially was a sports editor in Portsmouth and was 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.440 elevated to managing editor, and during my time there there 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.360 were always these rumors about Michael Moran and the women 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.960 that he was around and the circles he ran in, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.839 and it just at the time, early in my career, 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.039 it just seems so far fetched. Portsmouth, if nothing else, 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:11.279 is a rumor mill. So a lot of things get 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.560 tossed around without substantive evidence to back it up. But 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.480 it was quite surprising to receive word that there was 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.880 something that could actually back this up. We got a 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.400 copy of it ourselves and verified it through various attorneys 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.240 and our own legal counsel, and I went back and 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:30.720 looked through the notes that I had taken, and because 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.279 I never throw away a notebook from my time working 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:34.680 in Portsman, I was like, man, a lot of the 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:38.360 tracks and here's a government official saying so, and it's 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:41.800 in a sworn aff a David, So it's time for 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:44.400 the chips down on the table and get involved. As 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:46.240 too big of a story to ignore, even if it 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.919 is a place that is not traditionally in an area 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.160 where it might paper covers it. I don't know if 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.760 it initiated a sense of responsibility as much as it 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.359 triggered a pretty huge amount of guilt that motivated me 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.320 to go pitch the story to our bosses, despite the 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.120 paper being two and a half hours away from the 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:08.040 subject that we were covering. And luckily bosses were hospitable 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.400 enough to allow us to explore and then go dig 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.120 real deep in a story and turn over some rocks 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:18.400 that needed to be turned over decades ago. Reporter James 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.000 Pilcher was writing for The Inquirer at the time. My 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:23.680 boss came to me, because I was an investigative reporter, 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:25.560 and said, what do you think about this? Do you 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.839 want to take a look? Is this guy trafficking women 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.840 all over the country from this little town, this burned 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.960 out shell of a town. It's known as the epicenter 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.520 of the opioid epidemic? Is he doing this? Is it true? 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.599 Can we prove it? I really thought there was no way, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:44.920 There was no way this could be going on for 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.039 so long and nobody did anything about it. The other 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:52.040 interesting thing was that the paper who got this wouldn't 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.680 publish it. I mean it's a federal affidavit, and they 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.000 still wouldn't publish it right there in the hometown. And 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.200 Mike Moran, it takes a big city newspaper from two 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:03.840 hours away in Cincinnati to come in and do this investigation. Now, granted, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.039 we had the resources of USA today behind us, but 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.359 why not if that had been published, or if the 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.280 local newspaper had been truly an independent arm or an 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.880 independent eye with some of this stuff have gone on, 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.680 I don't think so. The first time I went to Portsmouth, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:19.880 I didn't know what to expect, and they partnered me 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:24.000 full time. With the photographer who was also bylined on 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.240 the story. Is she and I were just shooting some 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.120 footage out at the US Shoe factory and there was 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.640 graffiti there talking about prostitution and drugs and things like that, 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:35.920 and this guy rides up on a bicycle saying, what 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:37.880 you guys doing. We just kind of telling them, so, 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:39.800 by the way, do you know Michael Murrainey says, oh, yeah, 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:44.920 that guy runs women. At that point, We're like, oh 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:47.120 my god, everybody in town knows this. The guy on 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:52.400 the street knows this guy. We didn't even ask. In 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.720 twenty eighteen, Pilcher began the difficult task of locating area 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:57.840 women and asking them to open up to him about 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.200 their alleged experiences with Michael Murray. And June of that 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.480 year I got the first woman to come forward and say, 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.280 here's exactly how he did it. And then by July 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.520 we had one or two on the record. And if 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.280 these allegations proven true, this guy was in the seed 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.400 of power. He had these vulnerable women coming to him 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.480 for help from a legal perspective, and he offered then 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:23.440 the other way out, do this and maybe I can 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.280 get these charges lesson for you. We heard that story 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.120 over and over again. Do this and you won't go 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:33.440 to jail. And how much of a worse abusive power 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:38.800 could there being? You started this story not believing this 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.440 as possible. How does that make you feel? Six seven 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.160 to forty, I look like a cop, got a big 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.360 black coute where a black fedora. I'm not warm and cuddley, 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.599 and people don't immediately warm up. Now, I'm a good conversationalist, 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.520 but I was the government kind of accountability reporter. And 0:08:57.559 --> 0:08:59.520 getting women to open up and tell me these awful 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.120 things happened to them. That was eye opening and it 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:04.480 was a new skill that I had to learn. I 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:06.600 also had to be the reporter. I also had to 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.760 be the objective reporter. And the hard part was I 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:11.960 also had to fact check all these women. I couldn't 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.920 just take their word for it. My publication's reputation was 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.400 on the line. My reputation was on the line. I 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.800 had to believe would be skeptical. So when they would 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.320 tell me, oh, I remember that I got arrested in 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.880 this particular place, and I have to say, okay, where when, 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:27.880 what can you tell me? I'd have to go look 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.560 up the court records all of those things and try 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.679 to make sure that the timelines matched. Ever since then, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.920 it's been like, you know, these women aren't lying, and 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:42.559 they deserve all of our attention. The more Pilcher investigated, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.280 the deeper the ties into the Portsmouth legal system grew. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.800 We reported several times the women were saying that Marian 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.520 would brag about his relationship with former Kyoto County Common 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.360 Police Court Judge William Marshall. Now William Marshall was one 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.680 of the Marshall Boys. He and his brother were the 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.760 son of the former judge Marshall in that county. So 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.840 Bill Marshall took his dad's place as one of two 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.640 Common Police Courts judges which had oversees all the serious 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:10.839 cases and all the felonies and all the high end 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.079 civil cases. At a county level, it's an elected position. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:19.199 There were allegations that Moran was guiding them to have relations, 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:24.480 to go to parties with Judge William Marshall. It should 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.679 be noted that Judge William Marshall has staunchly denied these 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:31.839 allegations or any illicit ties to Michael Moran. Though a 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.360 judge is mentioned in the Affidavid Marshall has repeatedly insisted 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.360 he is not the judge referred to as working in 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.280 collusion with Moran and has not been charged in connection 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:45.360 with that probe. But the allegations made by area women 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.880 didn't stop at a local judge. One of the women 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:49.800 who did go on the record for that first story 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.240 told us that she partied with the former police chief, 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.640 she partied with former members of the police department, all 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.960 because Moran sat it up. These women came forward and said, 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.800 these guys used their position to either traffick me. When 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.839 lady got sent up to Chicago, not knowing what she 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.040 was getting into and then turned into a prostitute up there, 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.760 and then other women were talking about how the probation department, 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.360 his brother, the guy ran the probation department, was using 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:20.400 his position to lessen her probation. That's how deep this went. 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.440 One of the best lawyers in, a politician, and a 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.840 sitting judge all possibly involved in this network. And that's 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.160 when we knew we needed to get more women who 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.160 had been through this experience to talk about what they'd 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:38.800 been through. The following is audio from an interview the 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.120 Cincinnati Enquirer did with a woman named Heather Boots. She 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.800 claimed to have been a sex trafficking victim in Portsmouth. 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:47.880 She went on the record about her alleged association with 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:52.480 Michael Moran. He's your room. So many people's lives if 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:58.240 this isn't happening for decades, because the judges and the 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:05.800 corruption here, they're all of it. It's you just saw 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:10.760 at any house, they will tell you everything like it's 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:18.200 no secret. James Pilcher began further exploring the Megan Lancaster case. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:24.400 Katie Lancaster thinks very strongly that Michael Moran lured Megan 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.520 into this life and it's his fault she's dead or missing. Now, 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.600 whether he actually was directly involved, all we know is 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:33.400 she left behind a heck of a lot of notes 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.200 about all of her different liaisons and all the people 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.559 she would go to for money. She kept all of it. 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.240 Katie found it. She has copies of everything. We called 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.360 every single number in that book. Some people acknowledge yeah, 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:49.400 about sex from her and she became like a slew 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:54.000 of women went missing or got killed that were addicted prostitutes, 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.720 sex workers up in Ross County and Chilla Coffee, which 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:59.840 is two counties to the north. I mean we're talking 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.760 dozen more women so Megan. A lot of people theorized 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:06.880 that Megan might have been wrapped up in something that 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.959 got those women killed. But there's a lot of thought 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.560 and there's a lot of theory or rumor that now 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.000 that that was separate from what happened to her, and 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:18.959 what happened to her points back to possibly Michael Morian. 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.560 Michael Moran has denied any involvement or responsibility in Megan 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:29.240 Lancaster's disappearance. Moran has stated numerous times and interviews that 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.240 the only involvement he had with Megan Lancaster was in 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.640 a case involving a former client where Lancaster acted as 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.960 an informant. He has said that he had no other 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:42.520 relationship with her and that she did not work for him. Additionally, 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.480 authorities have not brought any charges against him in the case. 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.320 At this time, it's unclear whether they have questioned him 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:53.960 in the matter. Throughout twenty nineteen, the Cincinnati Enquirer published 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.000 a series of articles by James Pilcher and his colleagues 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.920 about Michael Moran and his allegedized to human trafficking. Everything 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.360 that was in that affidavit, we reported it out as 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.400 a rageous of the sounds allegations that he was running 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.320 women all over the country, He was promising women drugs 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.720 for sex, he had relationships with judges and with members 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.400 of law enforcement, all of it. So those allegations, all 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.360 of this is in the federal document, and yet they 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:26.000 never moved on Moran. Now, the DA says we handed 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.720 all the stuff about human trafficking over the FBI. The 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.480 FBI says we're not going to comment on any potential 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.240 or ongoing investigation. So you can see how frustrated we 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.120 were with like, Okay, why doesn't anybody move on him. 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:44.600 What's going on here? Bob strictly shared Pilcher's frustration. A 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.960 very important thing that the press does, when it's done 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.760 well is to shine lights and you know, and to 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.280 offer a vehicle for those people stepping forward, right. Do 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.160 you find a sense of kind of responsibility of making 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.160 sure those voices are heard? What that this one apart 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.560 was just the amount of women that stepped forward and 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.320 said something about this to us and talk to us 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.360 about it. And then also the apparatus that has to 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:14.280 exist around a person Michael Moran for an operation as 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.360 we reported on, to exist in the first place, a 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.720 lot of people have to turn their heads. Kind of 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.360 the damnability of people who just turned the other way 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:24.880 and don't care about what's going on right in front 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.400 of them in their community is more prevalent than maybe 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:35.640 we've all realized. Initially. We're going to take a quick 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:49.080 break here, we'll be back in a moment. As part 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.840 of his reporting, Pilcher tracked down Michael Moran to get 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.200 his side of the story. Moran vehemently denied all the 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:59.280 allegations about being involved in any prostitution or sex trafficking rings. 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.680 Talk to Michael Moran three times at length. When we 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.360 first talked to him, said, are you a sex trafficker? 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.240 People have said you're a sex trafficker. It says here 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.160 in this appa, David, you're a sex trafficker. What do 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.240 you say to that? He tried to play the dumb 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.960 country lawyer. The following is an audio recording from that 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.240 interview with Michael Moran. I don't even know what to say. 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:25.160 Give me the definition of a sex trafficker. So then 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.000 we get all these women lined up. Would come back 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.400 to him and say, okay, we've got these women now 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:34.400 saying that you're the guy, and he says okay, and 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:36.160 then he was more angry. He would not go on 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:41.600 camera with us a second time. During one conversation, Pilcher 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:46.280 asked Moran specifically about Megan Lancaster. Moran denied being her 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.479 pimp or being involved in any of that kind of activity, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.600 but when James Pilcher brought up the possible whereabouts of 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:57.360 Megan Lancaster, he got a shocking response. Pilcher relayed the 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.000 story to producer Jeff Shane. He joked with, Hey, maybe 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.400 she's in my basement, maybe she's in my backyard. He 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:05.800 thinks it's a joke because he knows what the rumors are. 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.719 Wait what you So you asked him directly about it? Oh? Absolutely, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:11.640 I said, you have anything to do with Megan Lancaster 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:13.639 And he said no, but you can check my basement. 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:16.119 Everybody else wants to, you can check out him back. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.200 He said, I've invited the cops in to take a look. Well, 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.320 I'm not going to surmise whether he's trying to get 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.600 away with anything, because I don't know whether or not 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.920 he had anything to do with her disappearance. I really don't. 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.360 Are reporting didn't lead down those paths. But he had 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.560 this attitude that he thought he was smarter than you, 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.359 that he thought he was smarter than anybody. And I 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:42.119 think what probably from my reporting and my history on 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:44.880 all this is that I read a lot of stuff 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:47.480 about him and leading up to him, and I'd see 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:51.520 stories here and there, but nobody but Nikki Blncolnship kept 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.600 at him. Nobody kept on him. And I can tell 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:58.919 you that we never went away. The photographer person that 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.360 I worked with, was all in the courtroom bugging him, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.560 you know, was bugging him that she was there. She 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.119 was always taking pictures or getting video of him in 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:12.040 action in the courtroom. We just never went away. In 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.560 twenty twenty, authorities finally made their move. Police rated the 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.800 home of a well known lawyer suspective running a national 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.879 sex trafficking ring for years. March twenty fifth, state and 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.480 local police raid Michael Moran's house with a search warrant 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:30.840 in Davos. The Attorney General was personally present for that 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.600 en Portsmouth. When you get the state Attorney General showing 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.480 up to serve a search warrant, you know that there 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.040 are some very important people watching this case. I'm looking 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.399 at the story I did and you can see Moran 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.600 is sitting on his porch in his stocking feet while 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:50.080 police are searching his office slash house. Now the thing 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.399 you got to remember too, which is interesting. He is 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.919 a brick two story house that sits on the corner 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:58.320 right across from the courthouse and right across Catty coinner 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.720 from the local prosecutors office. So he literally can walk 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.639 back and forth from his house flash office to the 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.719 courthouse and walked right in front of the prosecutor's office. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.240 Just seven months later, it all came crashing down from 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.320 Michael Moran. A long time defense lawyer and former city 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.119 councilman has been arrested in an alleged sex trafficking operation. 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.080 So on Friday, October twenty third to twenty twenty, stayed 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.760 in local police teamed up and arrested Michael Moran. This 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:34.000 comes nearly seven years after that initial affidavit issued by 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:38.840 the DA for Nicky Blanketship. It was a day that 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.440 marked the culmination of years of tireless work and a 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:44.480 victory for dozens of Portsmouth women when Mike Maman was 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.520 arrested on October twenty third, He was arrested on the 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.320 eighteen charges that included sex trafficking, rackety cood, spelling, and 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:55.840 promoting prostitution. When that came out, that was a really 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.119 exciting day for me. I was screaming. I ran through 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:02.119 the house screaming because I worried that no one was 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.439 ever going to check. No one wasn't really ever going 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.800 to look into it. I really worried. I know that 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.840 the Cincinnati enquire they had to do their own investigation, 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.760 but it was approximately a year before they started releasing things, 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.119 and when they released things, I still didn't know if 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:20.080 anything was ever going to happen, and so finally I 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.520 was like, Okay, at least somebody's finally checking. Did it 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:27.000 kind of validate the journey you had started on? Yeah? Yeah, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:29.919 it definitely did. There were also a lot of people 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.600 who were saying he's a great man, and I worried 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:35.760 about that. I'm like, did I make a mistake? Am 0:20:35.760 --> 0:20:38.760 I wrong? And there's no way I could have seen that. 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.119 I was at this point, I'm like, I have so 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.000 much evidence, but still I can't. I don't want to 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:50.199 hurt anyone's life like that. So yeah, I was like, okay, something, 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.320 it was valid, and everything I've worked on for for 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:58.240 a decade is valid. Yeah. Katie Lancaster also felt a 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.560 great sense of relief and was struck by the uncanny 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:04.720 timing of Marian's arrest. Mariana was arrested October twenty third, 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:10.400 twenty twenty, the day before Megan's thirty third birthday. I mean, 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.240 I was on my way to Columbus and I got 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.719 jumped out of the damn car while it was moving. 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.160 I couldn't speak, I couldn't talk, I couldn't tell anybody 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.560 what was going on. I was just like, oh my gosh, 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.520 oh my gosh, Like I just couldn't believe it, and 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.520 before it happened, the day that it did, it was 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.879 almost like a sense of Okay, now I know this 0:21:31.040 --> 0:21:33.399 is a god thing, Like this happened the day before 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:37.399 Megan's birthday, almost eight years into it, like it could 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:39.600 not have come at a better time. It was like, 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.560 oh my gosh, we did it. We got this far, Megan, 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:46.879 look what you have done. Like I so just wanted 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:51.320 five minutes with her to say, look that you've done. 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.560 Let's stop here for another quick break. We'll be back 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:12.119 in a moment. Just three days after his arrest, Michael 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:15.440 Moran appeared in court. He was arragned on October twenty six, 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.280 implied not guilty, and then he posted a three hundred 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.960 thousand dollars bond and was released five days after his arrest. 0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:26.680 He was also suspended by the state Bar Association, so 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.600 he's not allowed to practice law at all, both from 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:33.840 the bar perspective but also from his bond agreement. But 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.239 that didn't stop Moran from trying to pull off an 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:41.040 audacious legal maneuver. So Michael Moran actually initially filed to 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:45.280 defend himself in court. He had the intimate knowledge things 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:48.400 that these women would never want to know publicly, and 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:52.320 he could cross examine them on the witness stand. So 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:55.639 I actually talked to the Attorney General about this and 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:57.359 he said there's no way they were going to let 0:22:57.400 --> 0:23:03.440 them do that. They strongly, strongly objected, and Moran is 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:07.280 since backed off of that. He hired an attorney. It 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:10.000 didn't take long for Moran to violate his bond agreement. 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:14.600 As it turns out, Moran represented somebody against the court order. 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:18.040 He represented somebody in municipal court and filed paperwork for 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:21.639 somebody in municipal court in Portsmouth. As part of his 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:26.639 bond agreement, he was supposed to have not represented anybody. 0:23:27.320 --> 0:23:29.919