Ron Welch
Muskingum County Prosecutor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 16, 2024
Newark Woman’s Lies About Drugs, Boyfriend Result in Prison Time
A Newark woman’s history of lying to law enforcement authorities and a court grand jury resulted in time in prison.
Cassie Lecce, age 29, of Newark, appeared before Judge Mark Fleegle on February 14, 2024 for sentencing on one count of perjury and one count of obstructing justice. Although Lecce’s attorney argued that she should be given probation, she received a prison sentence of one year.
Lecce’s troubles began when she was found in a Carroll Street home during a search warrant served in the investigation of Nukiyus “Cabo” Simpson. Police found Simpson, 25, flushing drugs down the toilet and is currently serving 11 years in prison, as a result of the raid and investigation.
During the execution of the search warrant, Lecce claimed that she was a dialysis tech visiting the home to provide services to Barbara Thorne, who was later convicted of complicity to possession of drugs.
While it was true that Lecce is a dialysis tech, later investigation showed that it was untrue that she was present in the home for that reason.
Lecce was brought before the Muskingum County Grand Jury to testify about the events of that day, and proceeded to repeat the lie. When given an opportunity to come back to the Grand Jury and tell the truth, she lied again. Her lies went on for more than 45 minutes of testimony.
Ultimately, detectives were able to recover phone records and other data showing that Lecce visited Simpson’s home for romantic reasons, as well as obtaining fentanyl to feed her years-long addiction. She lied to cover for Simpson, resulting in being charged with obstruction of justice.
Normally, the grand jury process is a secret investigative procedure. When witnesses are called to the grand jury, they must appear, testify and tell the truth. That procedure is essential to our system of justice, ensuring that only proper indictments proceed to court.
Lying to the grand jury about material facts is an extremely serious matter, and a crime aggressively prosecuted in Muskingum County. A person’s desire that their friend or lover not be prosecuted or punished is not an excuse for dishonesty, although sometimes those pressures can affect a witness.
In such circumstances, the prosecutor will often confront the witness with proof of their lies and give them a chance to come clean during the same grand jury meeting.
Lecce’s case stands out out because, even when confronted with her lies, she kept telling more lies.
Muskingum County Assistant Prosecutor John Litle says Leece’s attempts to mislead the court system were exceptionally egregious.
“Being lied to is not uncommon in this line of work, but Lecce’s effortless lies and manipulation stand out as one of the most outrageous perjury cases I’ve handled in a long time.”
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