Former Lorain County lawyer who hypnotized his clients for sexual purposes to be released from prison

A disgraced former Lorain County attorney convicted in 2016 of hypnotizing multiple female clients for sexual reasons is being released from prison after serving nearly 10 years of a 12-year sentence. Following a hearing Tuesday morning in Common Pleas Court, visiting Judge William McGinty ordered Michael W. Fine, 69, formerly of Avon, released from the Belmont Correctional Institution and placed him on four years of community control, formerly known as probation. McGinty, a retired Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge sitting by assignment because Lorain County judges had potential conflicts of interest in the case, placed multiple restrictions and conditions on Fine's release. Fine must be on electronic GPS monitoring at his cost for the first 90 days he's out. He also has a 10 p.m. curfew, isn't allowed to have any contact with any of the victims in the case and may not leave the state of Ohio without permission. He must continue to register as a Tier II offender and complete a sex offender program, McGinty ruled. "No engagement in hypnosis while on probation," the judge wrote. "No working with women while on probation." Fine also must stay sober, keep a log of his whereabouts, register his cellphone and laptop computer with his local sheriff's office, and is prohibited from going to any libraries "other than to obtain (a) library card," McGinty wrote. Fine was charged in 2015 with 29 felonies including kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, rape, attempted rape, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, gross sexual imposition, attempted gross sexual imposition, illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance and attempted sexual battery, plus specifications after multiple women accused him of hypnotizing them and forcing them to perform sex acts. He pleaded guilty to six counts of kidnapping with a sexual motivation in 2016. Visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove, a retired Summit County Common Pleas judge, sentenced him to 12 years in prison. In a motion for judicial release — early release at a judge's discretion — filed Aug. 7, defense attorney Anthony Rich said Fine had served more than 81 percent of the sentence Cosgrove handed down. Fine "has been a model prisoner and trustee" while in prison, Rich wrote. "Defendant respectfully submits that a sanction other than a continued prison term is appropriate." Fine "was a complete model prisoner" with "an exemplary warden's report" that impressed even McGinty, Rich said Thursday. County Prosecutor Tony Cillo was an assistant under then-prosecutor Dennis Will in 2016 when he secured a conviction against Fine. Cillo personally opposed Fine's release at Tuesday's hearing. "It is horrific that somebody who was paid to represent people at the lowest points in their lives and the most-stressful points would use that as an opportunity to sexually assault them," Cillo said Thursday. Cillo said his office had consulted all six of Fine's proven victims when it learned the convicted sex offender was seeking early release. The victims, he wrote in a motion to the court opposing Fine's release, found it "difficult for them to suddenly (from their perspective) be forced to think about the offenses committed against them after so many years." One victim told Cillo she still is in therapy because of what Fine did to her. A second told Cillo she had to start seeing a therapist again when she learned Fine wanted to get out early, he wrote. A third victim told Cillo she was "still struggling with how to respond" to the news, while a fourth said attempts to write a letter to the court with her feelings about it "leave her numb due to the difficulty of going 'back to that place' in her mind," he wrote. Cillo told the court "the theme of the letters and responses received from the named victims relate that they continue to struggle with the emotional and mental trauma effected by defendant Fine's crimes against them, their desperate hope that defendant Fine would never be able to violate or hurt anyone else in the same way, and a clear and adamant opposition to any sort of judicial release." The Chronicle-Telegram does not typically identify victims or alleged victims of sexual abuse. Cillo said the victims were brave to come forward. One of them, Fine couldn't hypnotize and she faked it and helped catch him in the act, Cillo said. That, plus the one victim's recordings of Fine's activities, made a difficult case and the eventual plea and conviction possible, he said. The Lorain County Bar Association also started a disciplinary investigation into Fine at the same time, led by attorney Chris Cook, who was elected Common Pleas judge in 2016. Fine resigned as an attorney pending disciplinary action in August 2015. He had been licensed since 1981 and had an office in Sheffield. Sheffield police started a criminal investigation after one of Fine's clients reported "lost time," her bra not fitting right, and changes in her clothing and the state of her private areas after meeting with Fine alone at his offices and in the Lorain County Justice Center, The Chronicle reported in late 2014. The woman started recording Fine, and on Oct. 10, 2014, he put her into a trance and gave her sexual commands, telling her only to remember discussing legal matters, according to Chronicle reporting. Following another meeting and trance later that month, the woman played the recordings for Sheffield police who brought in the county Prosecutor's Office on the case. The woman wore a wire to a meeting at Fine's office on Nov. 7, 2014. Investigators, who were listening when he put her into a trance and started making sexual comments, interrupted the session and searched his offices, The Chronicle reported. Fine's law license was suspended later that month. Between 30 and 40 alleged victims eventually came forward, The Chronicle reported, though some of them had problems remembering what happened to them — possibly due to Fine's use of hypnosis, authorities said. Domestic Relations Judge Lisa Swenski reported that Fine tried to hypnotize her as well, and she eventually shared those allegations with Dr. Phil McGraw in an episode of his "Dr. Phil" show that aired in January 2017. Visiting judges were brought in to hear the criminal case because Fine had practiced in Lorain County and his wife was a court employee. Fine's former law firm dropped him due to conduct unrelated to the hypnosis allegations. He also was accused of defrauding a law firm he worked for, Will told The Chronicle in August 2015. Fine's alleged victims filed multiple civil lawsuits against him. The outcomes of those cases wasn't immediately clear. Fine tried to get out early in 2023, but withdrew the request later that same year, according to court records. Rich said Fine took advantage of his time in prison, got "every certificate" he could while behind bars. Highly-educated, he taught other inmates while behind bars, his attorney said. The state prison system is called the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and Fine "has been rehabilitated, period," Rich said. Contact Dave O'Brien at 440-329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.