Ohio Agents Use Woman's Identity in Strip-Bar StingASSOCIATED PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Supporters of Ohio's identity theft law are livid that state liquor control agents gave a college student the driver's license and Social Security number of another woman so she could pose as a stripper for a sting.
Investigators and Miami County Prosecutor Gary Nasal came up with nothing more than misdemeanor charges in the 2003 vice operation targeting the Total Xposure strip bar near Troy in western Ohio.
Nasal said the ploy was legal because a change in Ohio's law the previous year aimed at curbing identity theft. The law allows police to use a person's identity within the context of an investigation, he said.
And the tactics were justified because authorities managed to close the club, Nasal said.
''I don't apologize for the investigation and the conduct,'' he told The Columbus Dispatch for a story Sunday. ''The result speaks for itself.''
That doesn't sit well with a number of people, including the Republican state representative who sponsored the legislation and David Dawson, the father of the woman whose identity was used.
''I don't know much about law, but I would say that's just baloney,'' said Dawson, who lives part time in Columbus.
Dawson said his daughter lives in Cincinnati, has never been a stripper and didn't want to comment.
According to court records, Troy police paid Michelle Szuhay $100 per night over three months to strip at the club in Troy, a city of about 22,000 north of Dayton.
Szuhay, then a 22-year-old criminal justice major at the University of Dayton, worked as an intern with the U.S. Marshals Service and in a security post with the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. She had also stripped before, Nasal said.
Reached at her home near Cleveland, Szuhay declined to comment.
Each night Szuhay danced, the state agents drank beer and watched from seats inside the club, ostensibly looking for violations of liquor laws at the same time. Troy police watched, too, through an Internet account they set up using the identity of a dead man.
''Watching her dance was quite different than the other girls,'' Troy Capt. Chuck Adams said. ''She was doing some things I think she was ashamed of.''
Police said Szuhay befriended the Total Xposure staff, drinking with them after hours while using the driver's license of Dawson's daughter. Nasal and police eventually charged Szuhay with perjury and obstruction of justice. The charges were dropped, but Nasal said they would be refiled.
Rep. Jim Hughes of Columbus said his 2002 bill was supposed to help law enforcement fight identity theft.
''It was not intended for that, I can tell you that,'' Hughes said.
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