Crime & Safety

Former Mayor Vince Urbin Busted in Prostitution Sting

Urbin pleads no contest, found guilty July 1. Will spend one day in jail.

Avon Lake’s former mayor, Vince Urbin, was arrested following a prostitution sting in Bowling Green June 30.

Urbin pleaded no contest to one charge of solicitation, a third degree on July 1 in Bowling Green Municipal Court, was found guilty and fined $500, sentenced to 31 days in jail with 30 days suspended.

Bowling Green’s ABC affiliate, WTVG, first reported the story of the sting.

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The Wood County Sheriff's Department arrested five people in a prostitution sting at a Bowling Green hotel on June 30. Urbin reportedly pleaded “no contest” to the charges of solicitation after answering an ad on a website by undercover officers posing as women selling sex. Reports indicate Urbin agreed to pay $100 to have sex in a motel in East Wooster Street in Bowling Green.

Contacted by phone July 5, Urbin had little to say.

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“I have no comment at this time,” Urbin said.

Urbin is currently the Director of Community Services for the Lorain County Community Action Agency.

Urbin was previously charged with several felonies while serving as mayor. His felony record was sealed in 2010.

Charged and convicted as mayor, record later expunged

Urbin held the city’s top office from Oct. 5, 1992 through his resignation March 7, 2001. At the time of his resignation, he had been charged with several felony counts. He was ultimately found guilty of tampering with evidence, complicity to tampering with evidence and two counts of unlawful interest in a public contract.

He was accused of steering city-related business to an Avon Lake business his brother, Daniel Urbin, had been managing and planning to buy.

Urbin was sentenced to supervised probation and 90 days in jail with work privileges in 2003. He met the time requirements needed to have his record expunged in March 2010, removing any association of a felony conviction.

Last year, after his record was expunged, Urbin told the Avon Lake Ledger he would consider a run for mayor in 2011.


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