Ohio police chief facing felony charges for harboring, dating fugitive heroin addict 
 
 By Tom Boggioni 
 
 Monday, June 2, 2014 12:06 EDT 
 
 An Ohio police chief has been suspended without pay from his $32,000-a-year job, and faces 12 criminal charges — five of them felonies — after authorities say he harbored and continued to date a woman being sought on drug charges, according to the Columbus Dispatch. 
 
 Glouster police chief Lucas Mace is accused of failing to arrest Hillary Hooper, 23, at the scene of a traffic accident despite the fact that there were two warrants outstanding for her; one for probation violations and the another on drug charges. Mace failed to cite her for the accident, letting her go, telling her he would use her as an undercover informant. 
 
 According to Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn, Mace took Hooper to dinner, slept with her at his home, and lied to authorities about her whereabouts as he helped her elude them. 
 
 Blackburn said recorded radio traffic shows Mace knew there were warrants out for Hooper. 
 
 Calling Mace’s actions a “shameful pattern of wrongdoing,” Blackburn said, “He was basically using his office as a dating service.” 
 
 Blackburn also stated that Mace hid from the mayor during work hours and — while in uniform — went to help Hooper change a car tire while authorities were still searching for her. 
 
 The prosecutor added that the police chief had previously been accused of dating women “inappropriate to his public position.” 
 
 Investigators are also looking into whether he may have harbored other fugitives. 
 
 Mace faces three felony counts of obstruction of justice, one for theft in office, and one of possession of criminal tools. 
 
 The Athens County grand jury also indicted him on seven misdemeanor charges: six counts of dereliction of duty and one for failure to aid a law-enforcement officer. 
 
 Mace, who was released on bail, has been police chief for the village of Gloucester since 2012. ||||| COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two women who were arrested at an Ohio strip club along with porn actress Stormy Daniels sued four police officers Tuesday claiming they sought to retaliate against Daniels for her sex allegations concerning Donald Trump before he became president. 
 
 The women also said the officers arrested them to justify a non-existent long-term investigation into prostitution and sex trafficking near the club. 
 
 Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was arrested in July for inappropriately touching a female undercover officer. Club employee Miranda Panda was arrested for touching another cocktail waitress and Brittany Walters was arrested for touching an undercover officer while dancing. Charges against all three women were dismissed. 
 
 Columbus city attorney Zach Klein said a week after the arrests the law used to arrest and charge the three women with first-degree misdemeanors was "glaringly inequitable" and should not be enforced. Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, said at the time that Daniels' arrest was politically motivated, a claim denied by a police union official. 
 
 A message seeking comment about the lawsuit was left Tuesday with Klein's office. 
 
 A Columbus deputy police chief in early September announced that routine vice unit operations would be temporarily suspended while detectives provide the division's command staff with information about how investigations are conducted. Last week, Police Chief Kim Jacobs said she had asked the FBI's public corruption unit to take over the city's internal investigation of the unit. 
 
 The lawsuit's claims of political retaliation are based on emails obtained by Ed Hastie, who represents Panda and Walters, in a public records request, a now-deleted Facebook page and the officers' stated political affiliations. The lawsuit said one of the detectives performed "extensive" research on Daniels before her July 11 appearance at the strip club. 
 
 The lawsuit seeks a minimum of $50,000 damages plus attorney fees.
– A former Ohio police chief is facing 12 criminal charges for allegedly harboring a woman sought on drug charges—and dating her in his spare time, Raw Story reports. As police chief of Glouster, Ohio (population 1,800), Lucas Mace met 23-year-old Hillary Hooper on the scene of a traffic accident. Despite her outstanding warrants, Mace let her go, slept with her, and helped her flee authorities, according to prosecutor Keller Blackburn. Mace's behavior reveals a "shameful pattern of wrongdoing," said Blackburn. "He was basically using his office as a dating service." Blackburn also accused him of hiding from the mayor while on the job and helping Hooper—an alleged heroin addict—change a car tire while in uniform. What's more, Blackburn said Mace kept a camera running in his office, dated women "inappropriate to his public position," and likely had sex in his patrol car, the Columbus Dispatch reports. An intimate tidbit: Mace described Hooper as a "softie" because "she had the softest skin he'd ever touched," said Blackburn, apparently relying on recorded radio traffic. No word yet from Mace, who's suspended without pay.