A man from La Grande, Oregon was given more than 12 years in federal jail for sexually abusing two teens from Washington State that he met on Snapchat and taking them to other places.
Johnson, who is 42 years old, was given a sentence of 151 months in federal jail and 10 years of being closely watched after getting out.
Court records show that on August 8, 2022, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office was called to Barton Park in Boring, Oregon, because two children had been left there alone. The kids told the cops that they met Johnson on Snapchat and that he had raped both of them while driving them from Washington State through Idaho and into Oregon.
Johnson stopped at a hotel in Othello, Washington, and abused the kids there. He also stopped at a campground near La Grande and did it again with one of the kids there. Johnson left the kids at a campsite in Barton Park when he got to Boring and never came back.
When detectives from the Othello Police Department heard about the kidnapping and abuse in August 2022, they called the Othello motel and got surveillance tape that showed Johnson with the other two kids.
On August 30, 2022, Johnson was arrested at his home in La Grande by officers and deputies from the Union County Sheriff’s Office, the Union County Probation Department, and the Umatilla Tribal Police Department. He was being held on a warrant for parole breach.
As of October 5, 2022, Johnson was charged with enticing and coercing a minor and transporting a minor to do sexual activity that was illegal. Later, on November 2, 2022, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment against Johnson. It charged him with traveling across state lines to have a sexual act with a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to have a sexual act with a criminal, and committing a sex offense while being a registered sex offender.
Johnson pleaded guilty on January 24, 2024, to transporting a minor with the plan to do sexual activity that was illegal.