Safety Harbor Rape Suspect Eluded Capture For 16 Months

A Safety Harbor man accused of raping and impregnating his live-in girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter had a 16-month-old warrant out for his arrest at the time of his alleged crime, the Tampa Bay Times reports, citing court records.

Gregory J. Johns, 42, was as they tried to arrest him on a sexual battery charge in a Treasure Island motel room. 

Johns had previously been taken into custody in July on drug charges after eluding capture for nearly a year and a half. While there was an active warrant for his arrest, in June 2012, he allegedly raped the girl, who discovered in August she was pregnant, according to the Times.

The incident has drawn criticism of Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, "who in 2009 eliminated a team of 16 deputies whose primary responsibility was to find and arrest fugitives like Johns," the Times reports.

Scott Swope, Gualtieri's Democratic challenger in the Nov. 6 general election, called Gualtieri's decision to disband the fugitive division "a public safety issue when there are 56,000 active warrants in Pinellas County," according to the newspaper.

Gualtieri said Johns escaped capture because his last known address was in St. Petersburg rather than his girlfriend's home in Safety Harbor, the Times reports, and that it was "silly" to connect the cutting of the fugitive division with Johns' case.

Read more in the Times' story.

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