Evidence suppression hearing in 2025 fatal East Falls drowning case continued one week

ELYRIA — A hearing on whether a Lorain County Common Pleas judge should throw out evidence of alleged child sexual abuse videos seized by Elyria police during an investigation into a teen's drowning death last year will continue next week. Judge Chris Cook heard arguments Thursday over evidence that allegedly points to Jacob Rosado's involvement the alleged sexual abuse and death of Vincent Pabon. Rosado, 25, of Birchbark Drive, was being held in the Lorain County Jail on $525,000 bond. He is charged with causing the August 2025 drowning death of Pabon, 16, of Sheffield Lake, in the Black River in Elyria. Rosado has pleaded not guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter, eight counts of pandering obscenity or pandering sexually oriented material, three counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of tampering with evidence, all felonies, plus a misdemeanor charge of furnishing alcohol to minors. Cook continued the remainder of the hearing for one week, to Aug. 6, to allow Rosado to decide if he wants Cook to remain on the case or recuse, meaning remove himself, from hearing it due to a potential conflict of interest. The potential conflict is that Cook's brother-in-law, retired Elyria police detective James Homoki, was the investigator behind one of the search warrants Rosado is fighting in court. It was Cook who brought the issue to the attention of Rosado and the lawyers, something he said he was obligated to do under the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct and the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct. Cook told Rosado he would give him a week to decide if he wanted a new judge on the case. "If Mr. Rosado thinks I need to recuse myself, I will recuse" so no one can question whether Rosado has been treated fairly, he said. If Cook recuses himself, the case will be assigned to another judge, which Cook said probably will change the scheduled September trial date. In court, defense attorney James Ingalls said Rosado was satisfied with Cook has handled the cases so far. His client could decide to waive any conflict and allow Cook to remain on the case, or automatically waive any conflict if the defense calls Homoki as a witness. Assistant Prosecutor Paul Griffin said he doesn't plan to call Homoki as a witness if the cases go to trial. Cook ruled in May that all three pending cases against Rosado will be consolidated into a single trial. The Prosecutor's Office alleges Rosado possessed a phone containing videos showing him engaging in illegal sexual conduct with an underage person who appears to be Pabon. The videos allegedly were created in March 2024, when Pabon would have been 14 years old. Ingalls argued in court filings that the search warrant for his client's phone was too broad and therefore unconstitutional. Another video allegedly shows Rosado filming another child, who is not believed to be Pabon, having sexual contact with someone else. It is the videos showing sexual content involving minors that Rosado and Ingalls are trying to get thrown out of court. Ingalls argued Thursday that Elyria police first searched his client's home, then 12 electronic devices in a series of seven total search warrants. It was only after searching one of Rosado's Apple iPhones that detectives found alleged child sexual abuse videos. Ingalls said Elyria police went on to ask Judge Christopher Rothgery, who signed the original warrants, for more. That included 937 pages of text messages dating back four or five years, Ingalls said. He argued it was all "fruit of the poisonous tree" — a legal doctrine that says evidence is inadmissable in court if it was obtained from other evidence that was itself illegally obtained. Ingalls said his arguments extend only to the sexual offenses, the pandering and gross sexual imposition charges. "If the warrant was improper, (the evidence) should be suppressed" and prosecutors shouldn't be allowed to use it at trial, he argued. The manslaughter charges allege that Rosado illegally gave alcohol to Pabon, which contributed to his Aug. 7, 2025, drowning death in the Black River beneath Elyria's East Falls. Security camera video showed Pabon alive when he entered a wooded area with Rosado the night before. Rosado told police he and Pabon had been hanging out there when Pabon fell in the Black River and disappeared. Rosado came out of the woods alone around 5 a.m. the following morning. In a motion to suppress evidence filed July 13, Ingalls said Rosado left the area "disoriented, soaking wet and confused" before he called his mother to pick him up and then take him to the Elyria Police Department to make a report. It was during questioning that Elyria police and county prosecutors said Rosado admitted giving Pabon alcohol, and they arrested him on that charge as well as a felony charge of tampering with evidence. Pabon's body was recovered from the Black River on Aug. 9. A student at Brookside High School and the Lorain County Joint Vocational School, he was described in his published obituary as warm, friendly, genuine and outgoing. Rosado was charged with felony gross sexual imposition in 2021 for allegedly having sexual contact with a person under the age of 13, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted criminal child enticement. Pabon's family has disclosed that Pabon, 11 at the time, was the victim in that case. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.