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Michael Mearan, a former Portsmouth city councilman and lawyer facing multiple felonies related to sex trafficking, is allowed to leave his home after court documents state his health "visibly declined" during house arrest.
Ohio special prosecutors did not challenge the request, according to a Monday court filing. Judge Patricia Cosgrove modified the conditions of Mearan's arrest to allow him "to take walks within a half of a mile radius in any direction of his residence," according to Scioto County court records.
Mearan, 75, was ordered to house arrest in late March after Cosgrove ruled he violated the conditions of his bond by taking on new clients. On April 16 he was found in contempt of the Supreme Court of Ohio and indefinitely suspended from practicing law, an extension of an interim suspension implemented in February.