What happened to

Dawn Pasela?

Dawn Marie Pasela always had a hunger for truth, and was a fierce advocate for justice. But, when Dawn found herself wrapped up in a case with prosecutorial misconduct, did someone take their threats too far? Or, was this an unimaginable accident?

Born in 1985 to loving parents Edward “Ed” and Karen Pasela, Dawn’s personality as a rebellious and high-spirited little girl quickly evolved.

Both Ed and Karen said that when Dawn was a young girl, you could tell her the sky was blue, and she’d tell you that it was pink — just because she could.

Her curious nature was there from the start, as Ed shared, “She questioned everything. If we told her to do something, she didn’t mind doing it, but she wanted to know why — the reason behind us telling her to do something. She was very analytical.”

Beyond being analytical, Dawn was also incredibly empathetic and loving, which made her magnetic. She attracted friends at every point in her life.

Karen said, “I don’t think we ever had a weekend where we didn’t have someone sleeping over.”

Dawn was such a leader, that she sometimes got her friends roped in to push authoritarian buttons together.

Dawn was homeschooled and part of a network of other families homeschooling their children. The group had a fairly strict dress code that Dawn despised. The girls, pre-teens at the time, were expected to wear dark blue pants and a white blouse. One day, Dawn got all her friends together, and they spent the afternoon on the phone calling Dillard’s, Macy’s, and Victoria's Secret stores in the area. The giggling girls were looking to see if they had any vibrant bras in stock.

To Ed and Karen’s horror, they discovered that Dawn had orchestrated for all of the girls to get bright bras that would show through their white blouses in protest.

Even though she liked to push buttons with authority, Dawn knew when to respect teachers. She excelled in her academics, and quickly grew to be a bright young adult.

In college, Dawn graduated at the top of her class at both Cleveland State and Cuyahoga County Community College, where she was President and founder of Phi Theta Kapa, a member of the National Honor Society’s Dean’s List, and an important participant in the Criminal Justice Club.

Her desire to snuff out injustice and help people only grew as she got older.

After graduating, Dawn was hired in 2009 by Prosecutors Dan Kasaris and Mark Bennett to serve as Office Manager of a multi-jurisdictional Mortgage Fraud Task Force. This was Dawn’s dream job — to be a young woman in her early twenties and already managing an incredibly important effort made her feel like she was a part of something bigger. She was idealistic about what justice meant, and looked up to Kasaris and Bennett as if they were carved in marble; pillars of righting wrongs. Her ultimate goal was to join the FBI, which she was confident she could do.

When she wasn’t at her new job, Dawn was an avid volunteer with multiple groups, namely a disabled children’s sports group and a food kitchen. During her lunch hour, she’d go to the local mall, buy roses, and pass them out to people who she thought needed them.

Everything changed a few months later when Dawn was ordered to engage in less-than-ethical business for the prosecutors, Dan Kasaris and Mark Bennett.

Rather than admit a mistake and dismiss a 2008 case against real estate broker Anthony Viola, Kasaris directed Dawn to go to a “Free Tony Viola” event and pose as a graduate student. While there, she was told to wear a wire and record conversations with Viola so the prosecutors could obtain confidential defense strategy information about the upcoming trial.

Kasaris and Bennett also had Dawn write a check for Viola's legal defense fund so they could cancel it, and identify the law firm's bank account — all of which is highly illegal.

The prosecutors then used their newfound information to identify the people who assisted Viola’s defense or offered to testify on his behalf. Once supporters were identified, they were threatened with prosecution if they continued to assist Viola.

Dawn was told her job would be jeopardized if she didn’t continue illegally recording conversations with Viola and his supporters.

So, Dawn did what she was told.

She routinely went to the “Free Tony Viola” events and grew close to the other people there. She never realized that these new people would become her friends, so the stress of essentially being a double agent quickly ate away at her.

Then, things became more troubling in the fall of 2009 through 2011.

While working as the Office Manager, Dawn realized important evidence files were being stolen and never returned. Logs also showed that someone, or a few people, were forging her signature to take out additional documents. One time was an accident, Dawn told her friends and family, but multiple times indicated an organized effort to impact the cases going to trial.

Eventually, Dawn realized that a vast majority of the documents either missing or logged in and out without her knowledge were related to evidence against Viola. What’s worse, the documents being tampered with included exculpatory evidence regarding Viola — namely an FBI 302 document.

In other words, the prosecutors had information that would’ve proven Viola’s innocence but hid it to cover their task force mistakes and keep him imprisoned.
As a result, Tony was found guilty on April 1, 2011, in the Federal trial against him. His sentencing wasn’t until January of the next year, and the judge allowed him to remain free.

Dawn knew Tony’s situation was critical, and set out to right the wrong.

She contacted Tony herself that summer and spilled her long-held secret — she worked for the very men who put him in prison, and she had been illegally recording every advocacy event she attended. But, to make amends, Dawn gave him the exculpatory evidence that he was missing, and offered to testify on his behalf in his upcoming State trial.

By the end of 2011, Dawn helped Tony get organized for his State trial, helping to make exhibits and instructing him on how to argue his case. Dawn gave Tony the confidence to represent himself, and he felt vindicated knowing he’d get a fighting chance in court.

In 2012, Tony began his prison sentence for the Federal trial, and by February, his State trial was underway.

“In our last conversation [Dawn] said ‘Tony, they know I’m helping you,’” Viola recounted. “‘I have to come in because even if you win the trial, if I don’t come in they’ll chase me for the rest of my life.”

Viola remembers that the pair went back and forth on the situation for some time. He wanted to protect Dawn, and felt confident that he would prove his innocence without her testimony — but Dawn insisted on helping. So, she was placed on the witness list.

Her bosses, Kasaris and Bennett, got wind of Dawn’s actions, and began threatening her, saying she’d go to federal prison if she appeared in court and told her story — claiming Dawn was breaking a “confidentiality agreement” that she never signed.

The threats got worse, and Dawn was terrified.

She began to drink excessively, and eventually left her apartment to stay with her parents for roughly three weeks because she didn’t feel safe at home alone. She was even parking her car in her parent’s garage for fear of being spotted if her car was parked along the street.

Dawn was truly filled with fear.

Kasaris even went as far as to intimidate Dawn’s parents, showing up at their home with another man, saying they wanted to search for computers and hard drives. Dawn ducked out of the back of the house, running to a neighbor’s house to wait everything out. Ed, Dawn’s father, told them they would need to return with a warrant.

They never did.

Days later, things took an unexpected turn.

Dawn became increasingly fearful about testifying, so she missed the timeframe to speak as a witness. As a result, Judge Daniel Gaul issued a bench warrant for her arrest. Dawn was horrified, so she called Judge Gaul and told him that she was being threatened by Kasaris and Bennett that if she testified, they’d prosecute her and put her in prison.

Judge Gaul said it was more important than ever that she testify because she had “important personal knowledge” of what went on in the task force.

Thankfully, after spending that sobering time with her parents, she felt more confident and left to go back to her apartment as the end of the trial got closer.

In the evening of April 24, 2012, a few days after the bench warrant was issued, Dawn’s parents went to visit her to encourage her to speak the next day. While there, they dumped the alcohol Dawn had in the unit, and left around 8:00pm just as she got a phone call from an unknown man.

The next day, April 25, no one heard from Dawn.

When she didn’t show up to court, Tony said he assumed she decided not to testify because he told her “if something changes and you think it’s better not to [testify], then don’t.”

Both sides went on with their closing arguments without the jury hearing Dawn’s perspective.

By that afternoon, Ed called the local Parma Police Department and asked for a wellness check.

Their worst nightmares were confirmed when the officers said Dawn was found dead, lying face-down on the floor of her dining room.

*Dawn’s apartment door, via Parma Police Department.*

Nothing from that point on has made sense to Tony, Dawn’s Parents, Det. John Dawes, P.I. Bob Friederick, Attorney Kim Corral, and many others.

Six officers arrived on the scene before Dawn’s body was found, which is out of the ordinary for typical wellness checks.

Dawn’s apartment was also in a suspicious state.

Strangely, the heat was on, set to just over 80 degrees, despite the beautiful weather and one of the windows being wide open. There was no sign of a struggle, but a mountain of evidence that at least one other person had been in the unit. A half-consumed Monster energy drink was in the kitchen, along with a half-consumed fruit soda, Bud Light Lime was found in the fridge and trash, and a finished Redbull was found in the trash — all drinks Dawn despised. That, and new vodka bottles were found in the apartment. Despite this, there are no drinks found anywhere throughout the apartment.

Moreover, a total of three cell phones were discovered in the unit — but two did not belong to Dawn, including a silver Samsung flip phone photographed by the Death Investigator.

Cell phone records indicate there was an outgoing call placed on that silver Samsung flip phone, which was suspiciously found closest to Dawn’s body. The call went out at 4:39am — which is unusual, considering Dawn's time of death was later calculated to be roughly 18-24 hours before her body was found, making her time of death possibly 11:00pm on April 24th… a few hours after Dawn’s parents left her apartment.

Even more mysterious… the outgoing phone call was trying to connect to Dawn’s phone.

Her passing was attributed to an alcohol overdose with a blood-alcohol content of 0.595.

This is troubling, considering Dawn's parents know they dumped all of the alcohol in her apartment the night she was last seen alive, and there was no vomit found anywhere in her unit, making claims about her drinking to such intensity difficult to follow. On top of that, Dawn had food contents in her stomach, according to the autopsy. She was found fully clothed, which is unusual in alcohol-related deaths due to the inability to regulate body temperature and the recorded loss of control over their bowels.

Dawn had none of these issues.

However, since the police failed to investigate, interview neighbors, consider her role in the trial and the prosecutor’s threats, suspicions of foul play have never been seen through by law enforcement.

Dawn’s case is finally getting the attention it deserves.

In 2023, Attorney Kim Corral began assisting the Pasela family and asked law enforcement officials to re-open an investigation into Dawn’s death. As a result, Detective John Morgan of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office reviewed the case file and determined that the Parma Police failed to follow basic police procedure, failed to collect any evidence or interview any witnesses, even though multiple individuals had discussed Dawn’s “murder.” Dawn’s work computer was also missing when her body was found. Suspiciously, recently obtained public records confirm that on the day Dawn died, Dan Kasaris disposed of a laptop computer.

This has left Dawn’s family and friends not only heartbroken but distraught at the circumstances — and looking for the public’s help.

“I would’ve pleaded guilty and rather be in jail the rest of my life than have anything bad happen to Dawn,” Tony shared, which is why now, he’s dedicating the rest of his life to getting answers.