A lawsuit was filed on behalf of Florence Bray recently.

Her daughter Crystal Dozier was murdered and the body was discovered at the home of Anthony Sowell. The purpose of the lawsuit is to cause the State of Ohio to set up a special victims fund should Sowell ever receive money for any stories based on criminal conduct. This is the first of its kind in Ohio.

The Ohio Revised Code is in place to stop criminal offenders from benefiting from their criminal conduct. David B. Malik, Esq. filed the lawsuit to stop Sowell or family members from any financial gain from movies, books, magazines, newspapers, general news articles or other form of literary, visual or auditory expression.

The Crime Victims Recovery Fund will be set up for the Bray family if Sowell tries to sell his story. In a phone conversation, Malik discussed the suit with the Call & Post.

“It protects the victim,” he said.

A few other victims of the Imperial victims have talked to Malik, but he never said if they had agreed to be part of the suit.

Bray was appointed the administrator of the estate of Crystal Dozier on June 9, 2010. Bray is bringing this action individually, and on behalf of Crystal’s estate, her next of kin and beneficiaries. Dozier was born in 1971 and grew up in Cleveland until her death. Dozier, who attended Cleveland Public Schools, had six living children when she passed. The youngest is seventeen and the oldest is twenty-five.

The Dozier family reported her missing in 2007 and passed out many flyers in the neighborhood. The family looked for Dozier for two years until the police discovered her body at the house on Imperial.

“We now believe the flyers were took down and destroyed by Sowell,” said Bray, as stated in the family suit.

Sowell, 50, is accused of killing 11 women whose remains were found last fall at his house on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland. Prosecutors filed 85 counts against Sowell after investigators found the women’s bodies last October. These charges also include two rapes and an attempted rape. Three counts of attempted murder were added in February and a rape charge was added in April. He faces the death penalty, if convicted.

The Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office released the details of how the victims were found at Sowell’s home. The women were strangled with items including pieces of cloth, a belt, a cord and a rope. Shoelaces and pieces of cloth were used to bind the wrist of two women as well as the wrist and ankles of three other women.

Dozier body was ruled a homicide by the coroner’s office. She was murdered in 2007.

Costs are mounting up with this case each day. For example the fence, which cost the city $15,000, was installed in December at the request of prosecutors so that full-time police protection could be reduced after prosecutors and defense attorneys examined the home for evidence. But, the police protection has continued because Sowell’s lawyers have not yet had their expert examine the premises for evidence, according to a motion filed in May in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court by Assistant County Prosecutors Richard Bombik and Pinkey Carr.

Malik sent a copy of the suit to the Ohio Court of Claims. By state law, it will establish a victim account. Any money made by Sowell or his family will be deposited into that account and disbursed to victims.