Johnson Enters Plea In Sexual Misconduct

Times-Union, Indianna/August 25, 2006
By Jen Gibson

If his plea agreement is accepted by Kosciusko Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed, a Warsaw man will spend six years in jail for sexual misconduct with a minor.

Mark Allen Johnson, 41, of Market Street, Warsaw, entered a guilty plea Thursday afternoon in front of Judge Reed. In the submitted plea agreement, Johnson agrees to plead guilty to one count of sexual misconduct with a minor, a Class C felony, as a lesser included offense of Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor.

In return for the guilty plea, other counts against Johnson, including child molesting, a Class C felony, and child seduction, a class D felony, will be dismissed.

If the agreement is accepted by the court, Johnson will be sentenced to eight years in prison with the final two years suspended for probation. He also will be required to register as a sex offender with the state.

In open court Thursday, Johnson admitted his guilt when his attorney, Scott Smith, asked a question about the crime.

Smith asked: Did you engage in "deviate sexual conduct ... oral sex ... with (the victim)," who was at least 14 years of age but less than 16 years of age?

"Yes, I did," Johnson said.

Johnson faced the charges after being accused of engaging in oral sex with a boy in 2002 when the boy was 14 years old and in 2003 when the boy was 15.

Johnson was the pastor at the Pentecostal Church of Refuge on West Lake Street in Warsaw.

In a probable cause affidavit, filed in Kosciusko County Circuit Court, Johnson was accused of fondling a 9-year-old boy in the summer of 1997.

The document also says Johnson "did perform deviate sexual conduct" with the same child in both the summer of 2002 and in April 2003. At the time of those incidents, the child was at least 14 years of age but less than 16.

The 2002 incident occurred when the child was 14. Johnson and the boy reportedly went to an abandoned house in Warsaw where Johnson took off his pants and underwear and exposed himself. The boy allegedly performed oral sex on him at that time, the affidavit says.

In 2003 when the boy was 15, Johnson allegedly took him to a barn. Again Johnson reportedly removed his pants and had the boy perform oral sex, according to the affidavit.

Johnson will learn if Judge Reed accepts his plea agreement Oct. 5 at 10:30 a.m. If the plea is accepted, he will be sentenced at that time.