Niles woman gets ten years for trafficking child

YOUNGSTOWN - A Niles woman is going to prison for ten years for her part in a human trafficking ring that operated in Austintown.
Lori Jackson, 45, was immediately sentenced in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Thursday after pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in persons.
Jackson's case is part of a larger human trafficking ring uncovered in the Youngstown area by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force and the Ohio Attorney General’s Organized Crime Investigations Commission.
The task force investigation revealed that Jackson took a minor to the Austintown home of 77-year-old Charles Krusac, where lewd pictures were taken of the juvenile and a sexual assault took place. The investigation subsequently led to a Youngstown-based human trafficking ring that resulted in the indictment of four others, including Krusac.
Soon after being indicted, Krusac took his own life. In the three other cases, Ellaine Hellman pleaded guilty to obstructing official business and was placed on probation. James Jaster pleaded guilty to two counts of compelling prostitution and one count of promoting prostitution and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Ronald Hellman was sentenced to 15 years in prison on multiple charges related to human trafficking.
The Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force is made up of authorities and investigators from the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office; Yost's Bureau of Criminal Investigation; the Department of Public Safety's Ohio Investigative Unit; the Ohio State Highway Patrol; and the Austintown, Cortland, Warren and Youngstown police departments.