In December 1999 agents from the Ohio Liquor Control and Ohio Public Safety Offices in Columbus, Ohio initiated search warrants in the Scioto County bars looking for illegal drugs after a long investigation into criminal activity in the local area. One of the searches eventually led these agents to go to the home of Joseph R. and Claudette Ferguson located at 309 Front Street in Portsmouth, Ohio. At that time the agents from Columbus with the assistance of local law enforcement officials found not only drugs but also child pornographic materials in the Ferguson home.
According to the files maintained by the investigative agents, it was expected by them that Joseph Ferguson would be charged with possession of child pornography involving a minor child when the case went to the Scioto County Grand Jury. To the surprise of the state agents, the Scioto County Prosecutor Lynn Alan Grimshaw cut a secret deal with Ferguson's lawyer, Attorney Mike Mearan (the current 1st Ward Portsmouth City Councilman) which permitted Ferguson to plead guilty to the drug charges only, by using a "bill of information" and blocking the case from going to the Scioto County Grand Jury for consideration of matters other than the drug charges that Ferguson pled guilty to on 2/10/2000. There is no indication in the Scioto County Common Pleas Court files that the Ferguson case went to the Scioto County Grand Jury before the issuance of the bill of information was issued to Joseph R Ferguson.
This type of activity by the former Scioto County Prosecutor and the former Scioto County Prosecutors Office operated by Lynn Grimshaw is not unusal. In September 2003 Prosecutor Grimshaw's Office was working with Attorney Mike Mearan on a sex case that would have allowed Wheelersburg High School Teacher Mike Schmidt to plead guilty to sex crimes against his daughter using the same technique of the "bill of information". Luckily the Sentinel was tipped off to the Schmidt secret deal and after we publicized the matter the Schmidt case resulted in a prison sentence of 7 years. It appears that Joseph R. Ferguson's case was pushed through allowing the sexual allegations to never see the courtroom doors.
According to an article in the Portsmouth Daily Times in December 1999, Ferguson's arrest did involve the possession of child pornography. This information was released to the press and publicized by the Portsmouth Daily Times in a front page article. (I will get the article and publish it in the next few days.) The pornographic pictures seized at the Ferguson home on Front Street by the state agents can not be released but I was able to learn that the child in question was related to the Fergusons. State law doesn't permit the release of the pictures of the minor child to the press so only the Ferguson's, their lawyer Mike Mearan, and the agents on the scene know the exact relationship of the minor child with Joseph Ferguson.
Joseph Ferguson surrendered the following personal property to the State of Ohio as part of his agreement to resolve the case with only drug charges: a Honda GL 1000, a Cadillac Coupe De Ville, a Ford Aerostar, and a 1976 Chevy Van as part of his plea arrangement. According to the search warrant of the Ferguson home a personal computer was seized and held by the State of Ohio for about eight months after Ferguson's arrest. Ferguson filed paperwork to get the computer back in October 2000 and his motion was granted. The State of Ohio couldn't hold the computer if they were not going to proceed with the child porno charges. It is not clear whether or not the computer stored the child pornography pictures or if agents found the pictures printed out.
It appears that the Ferguson household didn't learn anything from 1999/2000 drug arrest of Joe Ferguson. On 4/26/2004, Claudette Ferguson, wife of Joseph R. Ferguson was arrested by the Portsmouth Police Department for possession of drug paraphenalia. She was found guilty in Portsmouth Municipal Court.
Violence also surrounds the 309 Front Street address as the Portsmouth Police Department charged Joseph Ferguson with domestic violence against a family member in May of 2001. That case had to be dismissed because the family member that the police claims was assaulted failed to come to court to prosecute the case.
It should be noted that Joe Ferguson is known as "MOE" on the Moezine Internet Forum. In 2003 I questioned Ferguson about his drug arrest and at no time did he ever inform me about the child pornography matter. Ferguson maintained that Portsmouth Police Chief Charles Horner framed him on the drug charges. I went to the Chief of Police in 2003 and questioned him about this matter and was told by Chief Horner that he and his officers were not the initiating law enforcement agency in the case. Chief Horner did say to me that Ferguson should just count his blessings. When I asked Chief Horner what he meant by that Chief Horner said there were other issues in the case that he could not discuss. It's clear to me that Chief Horner was inferring to the child pornogrpahy pictures back when we discussed this in 2003 but at no time did Chief Horner ever tell me about this matter. I learned about the child pornography during my investigation of the Ferguson drug conviction.
I believe that since Joe and Claudette Ferguson are representing themselves as "upstanding citizens" on their internet forum that it is important that the public be informed about their checkered past. I've already been threatened with a lawsuit by the Ferguson's if I dare to print this story. I welcome any such lawsuit as it will allow me to get more information concerning the child pornography collected at the Ferguson home at 309 Front Street.
Just because Ferguson and his lawyer got the porn charges out of the 1999/2000 case doesn't mean that it is not factually based. There is a historical pattern of sex cases being dismissed by the former Scioto County Prosecutor Lynn Grimshaw. This is no longer the case with the new Scioto County Prosecutor Mark Kuhn. Too bad the Ferguson case didn't come to light now. The outcome may have been very different.
There are individuals in the Portsmouth area that can testify that Claudette Ferguson has admitted the pictures existed but that they were not "as bad as portrayed in the paper." Hopefully the Ferguson's follow through on their threat of a lawsuit so I can get my hands of the pictures in question. As a parent I find it reprehesible that law enforcement agents for the State of Ohio looked at the pictures in question and believed a child was being used for pornography and the matter is plea bargained away with no justice for the child.
The Ferguson's new hangout is the Columbia Music Hall. According to the Columbia Theatre owner Lee Scott, Joe Ferguson works for him running his light and sound board "for free." Now that the public has this information I wonder how this might affect parents sending their children downtown for late night events? Just a question!
More on this story is coming! I have requested many documents from the case that I will put up for my readers to review once the agents have time to sort through them to ensure they do not release any material protecting the child's rights that is involved in the sex pictures.
Anyone with information about this matter that you want me to have can reach me at the following email address: johnwelton1958@yahoo.com. For those of you that have followed my postings on local forums I think you now can understand why Joe and Claudette Ferguson banned me from posting on their forum. They knew I could stumble onto this matter and didn't want it exposed on their personal internet site. I now wonder how many of Moe's defenders will keep defending him after this revelation? This will be interesting to watch.
John Welton (DD)
