On July 11, 2018, vice cops in Columbus, Ohio, arrested AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels in the middle of a strip club performance there, on charges that she made physical contact with a patron, who was an undercover officer. But within less than 24 hours, the charges were dropped. Daniels later sued, claiming that the arrest was politically motivated, due to her lawsuit that year against Donald Trump.
The officers involved were disciplined and an internal investigation ruled the bust “improper,” though claimed that politics did not enter into it. Thanks to the Daniels arrest, as well as several other scandals, the city closed down the entire vice squad.
Now, more than 18 months after the “improper” arrest, the two lead officers in the arrest, Steven Rosser and Whitney Lancaster, were finally given their pink slips by the city’s public safety director, who blasted the two cops for what he called their “gross neglect of duty and incompetence,” according to a New York Times report.
The city also said that Rosser lied to investigators, claiming that he and other vice officers conducted an undercover operation at the Sirens strip club the evening of Daniels arrest as part of a human trafficking investigation.
According to a report by WSYX-TV, Rosser said that the officers were tipped off that the club employed an underage dancer named “Pearl.” But the internal investigation found that the officers made no attempt to find “Pearl” at the club. No officer other than Rosser claimed that the visit to Sirens was sparked by allegations of an underage dancer there.
Just two days after Daniels’ arrest, reporters turned up social media accounts run by Rosser that were plastered with pro-Trump memes. About a week later, a local news outlet published leaked emails that appeared to show officers involved in the arrest planning to target Daniels in advance, and celebrating when she was placed in a jail cell overnight, as AVN.com reported.
On Thursday, in addition to the firings og Rosser and Lancaster, two other former vice cops—Ronald Kemmerling and Scott Soha—were placed on suspension for “conduct unbecoming” a police officer in the Daniels arrest.
Daniels settled her lawsuit against Columbus last September, accepting a $450,000 settlement offer.
Photo By WCMH-TV YouTube Screen Capture
