Federal prosecutors accused an Elyria man Friday of getting young women — most in their teens — hooked on drugs, forcing them to work as prostitutes, and holding them as "virtual prisoners" in his home. Jeremy Mack, 37, appeared in U. District Court in Cleveland, where he was charged with sex-trafficking of children. He is being held in federal custody without bond pending a detention hearing next week. Federal prosecutors also charged a co-defendant, Ashley Onysko, 23, of Avon Lake, with recruiting more than a dozen girls and women for Mack, providing them with free heroin, and driving them to motel rooms where they would engage in sex with men.
After the young women became addicted, Onysko would turn them over to Mack, who would compel them to work off their drug debts as prostitutes, according to a page charging document penned by FBI agent Kelly Liberti. Attorney Steven Dettelbach. A year-old girl reported that Mack routinely beat and choked the women, brandished hand guns and stun guns, and threatened to kill the women and their families if they crossed him or tried to escape his house on Tattersall Court, Liberti wrote.
The only time the young women were permitted to leave the house was to meet clients, the women told Liberti. Mack also confiscated their cell phones, and occasionally strip-searched them looking for missing drugs, the women reported. Attorney Bridget Brennan. She escaped after her parents discovered her photo on the Internet, where Mack was advertising the girls as an escort service. A year-old woman told Liberti that Mack hit and choked the women, and threatened to beat her if she withheld any of the money from Mack.
Elyria police arrested Mack, Onysko and others on April 9, charging them with trafficking in heroin and compelling prostitution. After police interviewed the girls and learned the extent of the allegations against Mack and Onysko, they called in the FBI, said Capt.
Christopher Constantino. The federal charges carry more severe sentences and will supersede the state charges, said Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.
