Watch: Mason councilman questioned in prostitution sting

MASON – Parked in unmarked vehicles outside a Frisch's restaurant, three Mason police officers staked out a room at a Super 8 they suspected was being used for prostitution.

After five minutes of surveillance, the room's off-white curtains moved, a bald man knocked and entered. Mason City Councilman Rich Cox walked out about 15 minutes later.

"Let's cut to the chase," one of the detectives said before asking Cox about prostitution. Cox interrupted the detectives and said, "Oh, hell no."

Video obtained by The Enquirer on Thursday shows police questioned Cox for about three minutes before letting him leave.

When police then knocked on the room door, a woman wearing a black miniskirt answered.

Officers found several condom wrappers in the trash, a notebook that appeared to be a ledger and a "considerable amount of money" protruding from her pocket, according to a police report.

Cox told The Enquirer it was a case of "wrong place, wrong time." Mason Police Chief Ron Ferrell said he does not expect charges to be filed against the lawmaker because there was not enough evidence to do so.

The chief refused to say whether he believed Cox's alibi.

"I am not going to speculate or offer an opinion, which is all that would be," Ferrell said. "He told the officers (his story), and we didn't have an opportunity to validate that."

The councilman told The Enquirer on Wednesday he visited the hotel 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 the video, Cox told police he met the man at Frisch's while eating. Cox did not mention a Verizon store in the police video. He also did not mention a note.

Cox did not answer calls Thursday, but texted a reporter that he was mistaken when talking to police. He said the woman in the room asked him where she could get food, which led to the confusion.

The Enquirer visited the Verizon store and could not prove or disprove Cox's story.

Cox, who was elected to Mason city council in 2009, said he has no plans to resign from council. City Councilman Jim Fox said he hasn't spoken to Cox yet and declined to comment until then.

"I don't know his side of the story," Fox said, even though he admitted to viewing the incident report. "I am always leery about someone being tried through the media."

Other city officials could not be reached for comment.

Police were drawn to the room after a hotel employee called 911 to report a guest used counterfeit money June 10. Officers made contact with a 32-year-old Chinese woman who could not speak English.

She told police through an interpreter she did not know the money was counterfeit, paid the hotel the remainder of her room rate and no charges were filed. At officers' urging, detectives then investigated the woman for possible prostitution or human trafficking.

Detectives viewed websites known for prostitution ads and found one for Mason/Kings Mills Road with phrases such as "classy and sassy" and "super sweet." Pictures of a woman in her underwear adorned the advertisement.

Cox said he stayed in the room for about 15 minutes because it was hard to communicate with the woman. He said he did not think the room was being used for prostitution because he has "no idea what that would look like."

Ferrell said the investigation was not handled differently because Cox is a council member. The woman also was not charged.

"The inability to communicate and effectively interview (the woman) was a detriment to developing any further leads into prostitution," an officer wrote in the report.

Detectives returned the next day, but the woman had checked out and hotel staff did not know where she went.

Mike Allen, a former police officer and Hamilton County prosecutor, told The Enquirer police had enough information to detain her and continue to investigate, but not enough to charge her with a crime.

"If there are condoms in the trash can, there is DNA. Yes, they could have done that. Why they didn't? It all depends on what the officers hoped to accomplish," Allen said.

Officers recognized Cox outside the room and could be heard in the video laughing about his hair, which he shaved off in December to support Leah Still.

"You gotta stay away from this stuff," an officer tells Cox in the video. "No more acts of kindness for these types of things."

Allen would not say Cox received preferential treatment, but admitted his statements were "contradictory and unusual."

"The only thing I can say is the councilman should be thanking his lucky stars today," he said.