Porter fraudster Donald Johnson to remain in jail without bond as he continues to seek an attorney
Johnson has cycled through attorneys at an almost dizzying pace — his last attorney stepped away in December — postponing time and again various elements of his most recent criminal case and, at least from the perspective of Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer and Special Prosecutor David Rooda, postponing payment of the hundreds of thousands of dollars to he owes to the victims of his securities fraud from his original case, which stretches back more than a decade.
Clymer swore Johnson in from the jail for questioning about his ability to hire and pay for an attorney. He told the judge that his inability to hire an attorney was 'beyond my control' because he couldn't get a lawyer to call him back while he was in jail.
'Mr. Johnson had three months to hire an attorney and hasn't done so,' Rooda said, adding that it fits 'a pattern of conduct of Mr. Johnson intentionally delaying' the case moving forward.
Johnson, 60, of Porter, has been held without bond in the Porter County Jail since late October after a late restitution payment, among other allegations, jeopardized his probation status. He also racked up a fresh criminal charge, a Level 6 felony count of obstruction of justice, during his Oct. 24 arrest at his parents' rural Porter County home.
Johnson is on probation for four years after pleading guilty more than a year ago to a single count of securities fraud in a case that has stretched for a decade and involves multiple victims. Under the terms of the plea agreement reluctantly accepted by Clymer in January 2024, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of broker-dealer registration violation, a Class C felony.
The additional 14 counts against him were dismissed as part of the plea and he was sentenced to four years of probation and to pay $604,500 in restitution, the total owed to all of his victims. He has paid $58,031 of that so far, according to online court records.
Johnson, Clymer said, has admitted in court that he was late with a restitution payment in October. The other matters to be resolved include the obstruction of justice charge and the other ways in which he reportedly violated the terms of his probation, including not reporting income from a job at a restaurant and bar; that in itself was a violation because he is not supposed to be at establishments that serve alcohol, much less work at them.
Rooda, reminding Johnson he was under oath, asked Johnson if he had asked his family to hold off on hiring an attorney for him.
'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson said, referring to the Fifth Amendment right to be free of self-incrimination. When asked to speak up from the jail, he said, 'I choose not to answer that question.'
Rooda asked Johnson if he had been in contact with an attorney who was willing to represent him, but whom he wouldn't hire.
'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson repeated before agreeing with Rooda that his family had the funds to hire a defense attorney.
Johnson has continued to push Clymer's patience to the stretching point and Friday's hearing was no exception. He said he wouldn't have agreed to the plea agreement, 'which seems like a long time ago,' if it didn't include restitution to Johnson's victims.
'I would not have accepted the sentence if the admitted victims were not going to be made whole,' Clymer said, adding one victim is owed 'almost a quarter of a million dollars,' and another is out $100,000.
'They're entitled to be paid back,' Clymer said.
He demanded to know how long it would be until Johnson got an attorney and Johnson said six months. If he hires an attorney in the meantime, Clymer said, the court will give the state notice and the hearing, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 23, can be held sooner.
'The delay is charged to Mr. Johnson,' Clymer said. 'The court finds he is not attempting to find counsel.'
The fastest way for Johnson to get out of jail, Clymer said, is to provide the remaining $550,000 to pay his victims back.
'Five witnesses are prepared to testify and this is the second time we've done this,' Clymer said. 'You can tell the court is not pleased.'
The securities fraud allegations against Johnson include multiple victims who, according to charging documents, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate investments gone bad when they did not get the returns they were promised and couldn't get back the money they put into the deals.
Charges against Johnson were filed in March 2014. He was initially charged with 14 counts related to securities fraud, Class C felonies at the time. Two months later, he was charged with one count of forgery, also a Class C felony, and two counts of theft, Class D felonies, in a related case.
An appellate court ruling trimmed that to 15 counts after determining that the statute of limitations had run out for one of the victim's claims, but the rest of the charges could stand.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
No phone passcode privacy expectation in police station, NJ appeals court rules
Police were permitted to use a Morristown man's cellphone passcode after watching him enter it in a police station, according to a new appellate court ruling. Stock photo) Police did not act improperly when an officer gained access to the phone of an individual detained for kidnapping, sex assault, and other serious charges after watching the man enter his cellphone passcode and committing it to memory, a New Jersey appeals court ruled Tuesday. Tyrone Ellison, who was arrested and convicted after kidnapping a minor with substance abuse issues from a Newark hospital, had no reasonable expectation of privacy when he unlocked his phone while in police custody and under the supervision of a detective, the court ruled. 'There was no violation of defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination where defendant voluntarily requested his cell phone, was not compelled to provide the passcode and voluntarily entered the passcode in the officer's presence,' the judges wrote. Police could not leave Ellison unattended with his phone without risking him deleting evidence, the ruling adds. The judges said prior case law that found an arrestee maintained a reasonable expectation of privacy when making a call from a police station without being told that call may be monitored or recorded does not apply to Ellison's case. Ellison, the judges wrote, was aware of the detective's presence when entering his passcode, did not attempt to conceal his password, and was not stopped from concealing his passcode from police. 'There was no deception or trickery used to obtain defendant's passcode. Nor did the police orchestrate the situation to induce defendant to reveal the passcode,' the court wrote. In effect, Ellison's expectation of privacy vanished when he chose to unlock his phone in the presence of police, the court found. A divided New Jersey Supreme Court in 2020 ruled in Andrews v. New Jersey that while the Fifth Amendment presumptively protects individuals' passcodes, they can be compelled to reveal them under the foregone conclusion exception to the amendment. That exception allows the compelled disclosure of documents and passcodes as long as authorities know they exist and the individual subject to the warrant knows and possesses them. Tuesday's ruling says another doctrine that allows authorities to use improperly obtained information if it would have inevitably come into their possession through proper channels would have allowed police to use the passcode even if it was initially obtained improperly. Police obtained a communications data warrant to search the phone and could have obtained an order to compel Ellison to disclose his passcode, the judges wrote. 'Once the passcode was compelled, law enforcement would have been able to access the contents of the phone,' the judges wrote. The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender represented Ellison. Alison Perrone, deputy of the office's appellate section, called the ruling concerning and said her office will ask the New Jersey Supreme Court to review the case. 'The ability of law enforcement to observe and later use a person's private phone passcode while in custody presents serious questions about constitutional rights in the digital era,' Perrone said in a statement. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Best Crypto Investment Ideas According to CEO of $1.6T Asset Manager Franklin Templeton
Bitcoin (BTC) aside, the best investment in crypto is its 'picks and shovels,' according to the CEO of $1.6 trillion asset manager Franklin Templeton. Jenny Johnson, the third-generation leader of the manager, spoke at the SALT conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Tuesday, doubling down on what in her opinion will be the biggest use cases of blockchain technology and where investors should put their money. In her view, bitcoin functions as a 'fear currency' — a financial refuge for people in countries where governments can block access to funds or where national currencies lose value over time. But despite its appeal in those scenarios, she sees it as a distraction. Bitcoin, she argues, is the 'greatest distraction for one of the greatest disruptions that is coming to financial services.' That disruption, she said, lies in the underlying infrastructure — not in digital assets themselves, but in the systems that support them. That's where she believes capital should be focused. 'The picks and shovels are the baseline of the strong, layered apps,' Johnson said. 'I like the rails as a starting point,' she added, referring to blockchain networks. 'Then there are some great consumer apps that are coming out that I think are really exciting.' She also sees promise in the role of validators, the entities that maintain blockchain networks. For active investment managers, they could offer a new layer of transparency and are a 'game changer'. 'Just imagine seeing on public equity all the transactions that go in and out of that company and how much information that gives you,' she said. Johnson led the asset management firm into digital assets after taking over her family's company in 2020. Under her leadership, the firm has launched multiple crypto exchange-traded products and introduced the OnChain U.S. Government Market Fund, a tokenized investment vehicle. She expects financial products like mutual funds and ETFs to eventually move to blockchains, where they could operate more efficiently and at lower cost. But for now, regulation remains the 'biggest inhibitor' to that shift, she said. Part of the hesitation, she added, comes from the sheer number of digital assets likely to fail — a level of risk regulators aren't yet prepared to manage.
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Gender reveal party turned deadly when DC man opened fire, killing one, feds say
A man attending a gender reveal party in Washington, D.C., grabbed an 'AK-style rifle' from his backpack and shot two people also at the celebration, killing a 21-year-old who tried to flee, federal prosecutors said. Now, more than three years later, Nyjell Outler, 22, has been sentenced to 24 years and six months in prison over the 2021 shooting, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia announced in an Aug. 18 news release. Outler, of D.C., was found guilty in March of voluntary manslaughter while armed and aggravated assault while armed by a D.C. Superior Court jury, prosecutors said. His criminal defense attorney, Thomas A. Key, did not immediately return McClatchy News' request for comment Aug. 19. Ahead of Outler's Aug. 15 sentencing hearing, Key and his co-counsel, Gemma Stevens, argued Outler opened fire to protect himself at the gender reveal March 20, 2021, D.C. Witness reported. At the party at a home on Madison Street, about a 5-mile drive northeast from the White House, Outler had been 'hanging out' in a driveway and spoke with other attendees, according to prosecutors. Within an hour of him arriving at about 7:43 p.m., he temporarily left before returning to the driveway, prosecutors said. When he came back, Outler was holding the 'Draco' firearm at his right side, according to prosecutors. Three other men, Johnson, Daloni Williams and a third person were in the driveway at the time. That is when 'Daloni Williams took a couple steps toward (Outler) with his arm extended, as if to say, 'put that away,'' prosecutors said. Outler shot Williams twice, 'point-blank' in his legs in response, according to prosecutors. He then turned and fired two shots at Johnson and another 'young' man, as they tried to escape, prosecutors said. Johnson was struck in the back by one of the bullets, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. He died in the backyard of where the party was held. Williams, who survived the shooting and needed emergency surgery for his leg, was in the hospital for nine days, prosecutors said. His hospital stay was followed by months of physical therapy. Dozens of partygoers were inside and outside the house when Outler shot Johnson and Williams, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Outler, who fled the gender reveal, had on a GPS monitor due to a prior his arrest stemming from an earlier 'Draco' possession charge from February 2021, prosecutors said. He cut off the GPS monitor and remained a fugitive for nearly a year until an anonymous tip led law enforcement to Florida, where he was arrested in February 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. In Outler's defense, Stevens argued at trial that there was 'a lot of speculation and finger pointing,' according to a report from D.C. Witness. She also contended, citing video evidence, that Outler had been surrounded moments before shots were fired, and Johnson 'had his hand in his coat pocket, where responders found a firearm after the shooting,' the outlet reported. Prosecutors, however, argued Outler was never threatened, and the shooting was intentional, according to D.C. Witness. The prosecution team had asked the court to sentence Outler to 35 years in prison, before judge Jason Park issued his 24.5-year sentence, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. In seeking a higher sentence, the government detailed Outler's criminal history, which also includes armed assaults 'a misdemeanor sex offense (he) is reported to have perpetrated since being brought back to Washington, D.C. from Florida,' prosecutors said. While on the run, Outler was on the U.S. Marshals Service Top 15 most wanted list.
