By: Ken Trump, newsnet5.comAKRON, Ohio - A female escort testified in federal court Wednesday morning that she was paid to perform "sex work" for former county commissioner Jimmy Dimora and co-defendant Michael Gabor.
"I was there to perform sex work for Jimmy Dimora and Mike Gabor," escort Rebecca Johnson told jurors in describing her “sessions” with Dimora, Gabor and others at a Flats condo.
“A session was a massage, a sensual dance and some type of sex work that was pleasing" to a client, Johnson testified.
Johnson said her friend and now-deceased escort, Allyson Peterson, invited her to perform “sex work” with one of her clients, former county engineer chief of staff Kevin Payne. She said Peterson, whose nickname was Glitter Pussy, first took Johnson to observe and perform “sex work” sessions with Payne, and then a second meeting was planned in Cleveland.
At the second meeting in August 2003, Johnson said she and Peterson were picked up in a limo in Akron and taken by Payne to a loge at a Cleveland Indians game where she was left by Payne to stay with a group of individuals.
“From there we went to a condo that was in Cleveland where there was a more private party,” Johnson testified. She said no “sessions” were performed at the loge but both she and Peterson each performed “about five sessions” at the condo where there seven or eight men present.
“We drank, ate food and had sessions,” Johnson said. When asked if the sessions in the condo were done in private she said, “It was well known. It was out in the open.”
Johnson said Dimora was not at this first meeting at the condo, but she did recognize prosecution photos of Dimora, Gabor, Dimora intermediary J. Kevin Kelley, former union business manager Robert Rybak and contractor Steven Pumper.
Peterson and Johnson received $2,200 for their sex work at the first condo visit, which included $800 Payne paid them just to show up, Johnson testified.
Johnson told jurors she had a “severe cocaine problem” at the time and could not fill out an application or even go into a business, but still needed a job. She said Payne sent her to the Dottore Companies on Canal Road in the Flats, where she met J. Kevin Kelley who introduced her to a company official who hired her as a receptionist.
Johnson said she worked as a receptionist for approximately six months but also continued working for Payne, creating what she later described as a financial dependence upon him for about one and a half years.
“Kevin Payne supported me financially for an extended period of time,” Johnson testified. “I wouldn’t say he was a sole provider but he provided me a base of income.”
Johnson said Payne paid her $300 to $800 per session.
One of the trips Johnson described was the Casino Windsor gambling trip prosecutors laid out on Tuesday. Johnson said she rode on a limo bus where she “sang, danced, entertained” with exotic stripping but did no “sex work.”
Johnson said eight or ten people road on the limo bus, but she had “very vague memories of that trip” and could not name all of the people who were there. She did remember that the limo bus had been paid for by Payne, and that she and Payne came back home on the bus that night instead of staying in Windsor.
“I was paid $50 by someone on the bus for my panties. It was a request,” Johnson recalled.
Payne also paid Johnson for other parties at two condos across from Payne’s office in the Stonebridge complex in the west bank of Cleveland’s Flats. Johnson said she and Peterson went to the condos 10 or more times.
“It was pretty much the same group of people,” Johnson testified. “It became predictable that it would be Kevin Kelley, Kevin Payne, Jimmy Dimora, Mike Gabor and then another person or two would occasionally stop in.”
Johnson said Payne and Kelley were not interested in sex sessions, but she testified she had “five or so” sessions each with Dimora and Gabor.
“The reason I was there was to entertain Jimmy Dimora and Mike Gabor,” Johnson said.
Johnson said her relationship with Payne ended in August 2006. She told jurors that Kelley hired her in early 2007 “to bring another girl to entertain in Solon” at what Johnson said she believed was Gabor’s house.
The FBI subpoenaed Johnson, she retained an attorney after talking with her father and then cooperated with the FBI, Johnson said.
During cross-examination by Dimora defense attorney Andrea Whitaker, Johnson admitted she had not been truthful in her first meeting with the FBI. Johnson also told Gabor defense attorney Leif Christman that she had a daily chemical dependency from using a mixture of cocaine and alcohol at the time she was working for Payne.
Jurors also heard testimony from Latanya Calhoun, a dancer from Toledo who went by the nickname "Egypt." Calhoun was picked up in Toledo and went on the Casino Windsor trip federal prosecutors said was attended by Dimora, Gabor, Russo, Payne and others.
Calhoun said she performed a private show for one person who she believed was Gabor, although she was not sure. She later
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