Theme-park Molester Gets 31 Years To Life Sentence

ANAHEIM, CA — A 47-year-old Long Beach man who sexually assaulted a female relative, beginning when she was 9 and ending two years later when he was caught in a sex act with her on a Disneyland ride in 2015, was sentenced Monday to 31 years to life in prison.

Johnny Lawrence Johnson was convicted Nov. 9 of four counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14 and two counts of having sex with a child 10 or younger, all felonies, according to Deputy District Attorney Rick Zimmer.

Johnson sexually assaulted the girl, who was living in Texas at the time, when she would visit him in the Long Beach area in the summers of 2013 and 2014, Zimmer said. She was 9 and 10 years old then, he said.

Prior to the March 12, 2015, incident at Disneyland the defendant was living with the girl and her family, Zimmer said.

Johnson and the girl, who was 11, were on the Dune Buggy ride in the Haunted Mansion's graveyard scene when a Disneyland employee noticed the victim performing a sex act on the defendant, Zimmer said.

Moments before in an unrelated incident, a man jumped off the ride, prompting an employee to summon his supervisor for help, Zimmer said. The supervisor first noticed the suspicious activity on a camera, Zimmer said.

Los Angeles prosecutors agreed to let the Orange County District Attorney's office take over the entire case, Zimmer said.

City News Service, with Ashley Ludwig, Patch Editor

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