{"id":2327,"date":"2017-12-16T02:13:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-16T10:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2327"},"modified":"2017-12-16T02:13:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-16T10:13:12","slug":"a-lawmaker-accused-of-molesting-a-teen-killed-himself-his-widow-calls-it-a-high-tech-lynching-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2327","title":{"rendered":"“A lawmaker accused of molesting a teen killed himself. His widow calls it a ‘high-tech lynching'”, The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>James Higdon and Marwa Eltagouri, Dec 15, 2017<\/p>\n

LOUISVILLE \u2014 Dan Johnson posted a final message to his friends and family Wednesday afternoon on Facebook. It appeared to be a goodbye.<\/p>\n

In it, Johnson denied the accusations<\/a>\u00a0that had\u00a0tormented him and his family for the past 48 hours \u2014 that he, a Kentucky state representative and the self-proclaimed \u201cPope\u201d of his Louisville church, had gotten drunk and molested a 17-year-old girl during a sleepover years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cGOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be,\u201d Johnson wrote in the since-deleted post.\u00a0\u201cI cannot handle it any longer .\u2009.\u2009. BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republican lawmaker then drove to a graffiti-covered bridge\u00a0outside Mount Washington, Ky., a quiet and isolated spot called the River Bottoms. He parked, stepped out of his car and shot himself with a .40-caliber handgun, according to Bullitt County Sheriff Donnie Tinnell.<\/p>\n

The apparent suicide of a well-known local figure was another dark and dramatic turn in the nation\u2019s reckoning with sexual assault and harassment, with near-daily revelations about powerful men leading to sudden falls from positions of power in entertainment, business, the media and politics. Many of those cases have led to denials, resignations and apologies; although Johnson denied the allegations, some\u00a0think they pushed him over the edge.<\/p>\n

His wife, Rebecca, announced Thursday that she plans to replace him in the state legislature. She spent the day at a funeral home arranging her husband\u2019s service, consoling her relatives and continuing to fight for her family,\u00a0said David Adams, a family friend and spokesman.<\/p>\n

\u201cDan is gone but the story of his life is far from over,\u201d Rebecca Johnson said through Adams. \u201cThese high-tech lynchings based on lies and half-truths can\u2019t be allowed to win the day. I\u2019ve been fighting behind my husband for 30 years and his fight will go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

[ Accused of molesting a teenage girl, Kentucky lawmaker refuses to resign <\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s death shook his family, friends, constituents and members of his Heart of Fire Church, with Kentucky\u2019s political elite immediately expressing their grief. Gov. Matt Bevin (R)\u00a0wrote on Twitter<\/a>: \u201cMy heart breaks for his family \u2026 May God indeed shed His grace on us all.\u201d Sen.\u00a0Rand Paul\u00a0(R-Ky.) said in a\u00a0tweet<\/a>: \u201cI cannot imagine his pain or the heartbreak his family is dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Kentucky Republican, state Rep. C. Wesley Morgan, lashed out at the media and his own party.\u00a0\u201cRepublicans,\u201d he wrote on Twitter<\/a>, \u201cyou turned your back on an ally and forced a good man who was trying to do right by the people of Kentucky to suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tumult began Monday, when the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting\u00a0published allegations<\/a> that Johnson sexually assaulted his daughter\u2019s friend\u00a0during a sleepover in 2013.<\/p>\n

The young woman, now 21, was quoted as saying that\u00a0for years she\u00a0had considered Johnson to be a \u201csecond dad.\u201d She became close with his daughter and familiar with the boozy weekend parties Johnson would throw at\u00a0the \u201cPope\u2019s House\u201d \u2014 the fellowship hall next to the Heart of Fire Church. Those parties, the Center reported, featured scantily clad women, body shots and costumes.<\/p>\n

In the first hours of 2013, as a New Year\u2019s Eve party came to an end, the woman said, she was spending the night with\u00a0Johnson\u2019s daughter in the apartment under the fellowship hall, according to the report. The Washington Post generally does not\u00a0identify victims of sexual assault without their consent.<\/p>\n

The woman said Johnson entered the apartment, drunk and stumbling, so\u00a0the\u00a0then-teenager helped him\u00a0navigate the stairs.\u00a0She thought he was putting his arm\u00a0around her for balance, until his hand allegedly slipped up\u00a0the girl\u2019s shirt,\u00a0the Center reported.<\/p>\n

Later that night, she awoke on a sofa as Johnson knelt above her. She told the Center that Johnson kissed her forehead and then slipped his hands up her shirt and into her pants. She begged him to stop and tried to force\u00a0the man, who weighed twice as much as she did, off\u00a0her without waking Johnson\u2019s daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told her she\u2019d like it. She said no, she didn\u2019t. She pleaded with him: go away, go away,\u201d the report said. He eventually did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you did was beyond mean; it was evil,\u201d the woman said she\u00a0wrote in a Facebook message to\u00a0Johnson\u00a0shortly after the alleged assault, according to the account.<\/p>\n

The Center\u2019s\u00a0seven-month investigation,\u00a0comprised\u00a0of more than 100 interviews and thousands of pages of public records, alleges the Republican\u2019s persona\u00a0was orchestrated to mask troubling incidents \u2014 including sexual abuse, arson and false testimony. It says that Johnson \u2014 known in his church community as \u201cDanny Ray Johnson\u201d \u2014 painted a picture of himself over the years as a pro-gun,\u00a0antiabortion \u201cpatriot,\u201d\u00a0which helped propel him into the\u00a0Kentucky legislature in 2016, when he won the House\u2019s 49th District seat.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

State\u00a0leaders from both parties\u00a0called for Johnson\u2019s immediate resignation after the Center\u2019s story was published. Johnson refused, and said at a news conference at his church on Tuesday that \u201cthese are unfounded accusations, totally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t want to blast this girl, I have a lot of compassion for her,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very sorrowful that she\u2019s in this dark place in her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following afternoon, he wrote on Facebook that the country \u201cwill not survive this type of judge and jury fake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, he was dead.<\/p>\n

Michael Skoler,\u00a0the president of\u00a0Louisville Public Media \u2014 which operates the Center \u2014 said in a statement that the organization was \u201cdeeply sad\u201d to hear about Johnson\u2019s death and was grieving \u201cfor his family, friends, church community and constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim, as always, is to provide the public with fact-based, unbiased reporting and hold public officials accountable for their actions,\u201d Skoler said. \u201cAs part of our process, we reached out to Representative Johnson numerous times over the course of a seven-month investigation. He declined requests to talk about our findings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Ham, chairman of the Bullitt County Republican Party, slammed the reported allegations, saying they were \u201cthe catalyst that started the whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story was based on hearsay: No arrest, no conviction, no jail time,\u201d Ham said. \u201cBack when the Constitution meant something, a man could stand before a jury of his peers. But now, it\u2019s just, \u2018Let\u2019s just make some accusations and run with it.\u2019 We\u2019re in a very bad place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bevin on Thursday also called for\u00a0an end<\/a> to \u201call the nasty, vulgar comments & other despicable responses to the news.\u201d<\/p>\n

The website for the Heart of Fire Church shows pictures of\u00a0Johnson\u00a0with former presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as with New York officials including former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, governor George E. Pataki and religious leaders including Louis Farrakhan. The church sponsored a \u201cBike Ministry,\u201d and photographs show Johnson clad in a leather biker outfit and an American flag bandanna in the lead of a\u00a0group of motorcyclists.<\/p>\n

A sign outside Johnson\u2019s Heart of Fire Church read Thursday: \u201cSatan accuses. God says youre not guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n

A\u00a0video made by\u00a0Guns.com<\/a>\u00a0showed what it called the church\u2019s \u201cGun Choir,\u201d with Johnson in a leather bike vest leading a group of people singing \u201cAmazing Grace,\u201d with pistols and guns displayed. Guns.com said that Heart of Fire was known as a \u201cbiker church.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGuns are welcome. Tattoos and Harleys are recommended, but not required,\u201d the website said. \u201cJust make sure you bring your Bible and an open mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church\u2019s website said that Johnson was in New York City during the Sept. 11, 2001,\u00a0terrorist attacks, and he had claimed that he helped police officers and firefighters at Ground Zero immediately after the attack. On the Heart of Fire\u2019s Facebook page, Johnson is referred to as a \u201c911 First Responder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s death came amid a flurry of sexual assault and harassment allegations against well-known and powerful men that has spawned a national conversation about its prevalence. Those accused include Hollywood mogul\u00a0Harvey Weinstein\u00a0and broadcaster\u00a0Charlie Rose.<\/p>\n

Sen. Al Franken\u00a0(D-Minn.) and\u00a0Rep. John Conyers Jr.\u00a0(D-Mich.) both said last week that they would leave Congress as they faced sexual misconduct allegations. On Thursday, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) said he will not seek reelection\u00a0next year. Farenthold is under scrutiny for allegations that he sexually harassed female staff members and created a hostile work environment.<\/p>\n

\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By James Higdon and Marwa Eltagouri, Dec 15, 2017 LOUISVILLE \u2014 Dan Johnson posted a final message to his friends and family Wednesday afternoon on Facebook. It appeared to be a goodbye. In it, Johnson denied the accusations\u00a0that had\u00a0tormented him and his family for the past 48 hours \u2014 that he, a Kentucky state representative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2328,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2327\/revisions\/2328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}