By Beth Burger, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – A Columbus police officer faces criminal charges after three women say he paid them for sex while he was on duty.
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Officer Randy Mayhew, 45, a 17-year veteran of the Police Division, has been charged with three counts of engaging in prostitution, three counts of solicitation and one count of dereliction of duty.
The allegations date back to 2015, according to court records. Mayhew has been on restricted duty for about a year after investigators began looking into the women’s accusations. He previously patrolled four West Side precincts.
“We’re going to enter a not-guilty plea,” said attorney Mark Collins, who is representing Mayhew. “We look forward to zealously proving his innocence.”
One woman, 30-year-old Nancy Collins, told investigators that Mayhew paid her $40 to have intercourse at her home on South Ogden Avenue a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving 2015.
Collins, who said she took a lie-detector test for investigators, met Mayhew when she was walking down the street. They chatted for about a week before they had sex for the first time. They had unprotected sex for money about three to four times in his car, she said. He would often give her cash, Marlboro Red cigarettes and Mountain Dew. He would pull up in his police cruiser and tell her to get in.
“If you don’t do for him, he takes you to jail,” she said.
When Collins was arrested by another officer, she asked what she should do if she had information about a dirty police officer. Her allegations were investigated.
She said she doesn’t think Mayhew should be able to continue to be a police officer.
“If they put him back out here, everybody’s a target,” she said.