COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A former staff member of Ohio's governor appeared in court Thursday, accused of involvement in a prostitution ring -- and the governor is responding to the allegations.
Robert Eric McFadden, who until October of 2007 was head of Gov. Ted Strickland's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, was arrested Wednesday morning in Dublin. He appeared in court and a local judge set bond at $150,000, NBC 4 reported.
Police said they believe McFadden was "Toby," the man they have been looking for during the past two months after busting up a prostitution ring from a home on Front Street in which prostitutes were raffled off on Craig's List.
Strickland told NBC 4's Mikaela Hunt that he is "repulsed" by McFadden's alleged activities, but at the same time, he believes the state did what it could to check his background.
If the background checks involved any more systems or probed further, Strickland wonders if it would be too intrusive on potential employees' personal lives.
He said that unfortunately with the amount of people who work in state government, sometimes there are going to be people doing illegal things that the state won't know about until there is an arrest and a court of law makes a judgment on the allegations against that person.
McFadden faces seven felony charges, including pandering obscenities involving a minor, promoting prostitution and compelling prostitution, but police said the number of charges could increase to 15.
Police said McFadden was one of the main organizers and the "guru" of Columbus prostitution, writing reviews of their services and advising Johns on how not to get caught.
They said McFadden was involved in Columbus prostitution for about six years and was also widely known in Democratic politics and Catholic politics as the leader of Central Ohio's Catholics for Clinton during the last primary election.
Stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for additional information.
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