How Could You? Hall of Shame-Timothy Johnston UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Independence, Kentucky, foster parent and Boy Scout volunteer, Timothy Johnston, 64, was arrested on five counts of distributing child pornography and one count of possession of  child pornography on April 5, 2013. He pled not guilty. Bond was set at a ridiculously low $5,000 according to WLWT or $1,000 according to Cincinnati.com.

“Kentucky’s Attorney  General’s Cyber Crimes unit gathered evidence against Johnston online.

Johnston was the foster  parent of two boys, ages 11 and 13.” The boys were removed from Johnston’s home.

“Police said Johnston, 64, collected child pornography and sent some images from  his computer to his cell phone.”

“A neighbor said she was  suspicious of Johnston.

“I told my boys to stay  away from him since they were real little. Don’t talk to him, just keep walking.  He just scared me,” Serena Nolan said.

Kenton County Prosecutor  Rob Sanders said parents who think their children may have had contact with  Johnston should call police before asking the tough questions.

“Normally, when we have a case, we send a detective out to talk to a limited  number of children that a suspect may have had contact with to see if there is  anything amiss in terms of abuse,” Sanders said.”

A public meeting was held on April 8, 2013 for Independence parents in the  county administration building.

Foster parent accused of collecting child porn pleads not guilty

[WLWT.com 4/8/13]

“Authorities say Johnston was a foster parent and also was active in a Boy Scout troop or camp. Officials do not know which troop Johnston was involved in.”

“At the [April 8, 2013] meeting representatives from the NKY Children’s Advocacy Center will talk to parents about how to approach their children about the possibility of inappropriate contact with Johnston.

Sanders urged parents not to discuss Johnston with their children until after the meeting.

“It is important to ask children in a non-suggestive manner so as not to create a risk of false alarm,” Sanders said. “Johnston remains incarcerated in the Kenton County Detention Center where he will likely remain until at least after this meeting, so children are not in immediate danger.”

Professional child forensic interviewers will teach parents the basics of non-suggestive interviews. Any child who gives any possible indication of being abused will then be invited to the Children’s Advocacy Center to meet with the investigators.

The meeting, which is expected to last one hour, will be in the fourth floor Training Room of the Kenton County Administration Building at 303 Court St. in Covington.”

“Johnston has not been charged with abusing any children, Sanders said. Authorities are concerned, however, about posts and pictures on Johnston’s Facebook page showing his participation in a Boy Scout troop or camp and Johnston’s role as a foster parent, he said.”

Foster parent arrested on child porn charges

[Cincinnati.com 4/8/13 by Brenna R. Kelly]

“A meeting for parents of potential abuse victims was sparsely attended on Monday night, but Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders saw it as a hopeful sign.

“Hopefully, it’s a good sign, meaning we don’t have the large number of children we thought that the suspect had access to. Of course, I don’t know that,” Sanders said. “I certainly believe that there are more children than we saw parents today.””

Child porn arrest spurs outreach to victims

[Cincinnati.com 4/9/13 by Dave Malaska]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: “A nearly deaf 65-year-old retired postman learned his punishment Tuesday in Kenton Circuit Court for viewing child pornography on the Internet.

Timothy Johnston, who wore cochlear implants to hear the proceedings, received a 10-year sentence but was told he would not have to serve any time if he complied with the terms of his probation for five years. The Independence man had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of transmitting child pornography over the Internet.

In addition to registering as a sex offender for life, as required by law, Judge Patricia Summe also ordered Johnston to make regular monetary donations to law enforcement charities dedicated to the prosecution of child pornographers. Summe didn’t specify from the bench an amount to be donated.

“This is a horrific crime,” Summe said. “My giving him probation has nothing to do with me, in any way, denoting the seriousness of these crimes. It makes me want to vomit. It makes me want to cry.”

She expressed concerns about sending Johnston to prison where he may not be able to use his cochlear implants.

Before being released on home incarceration while awaiting adjudication of his case, Johnston spent 18 days in the Kenton County jail without access to the implants.

“As much as I would like to say just tossing Mr. Johnston into jail … without his hearing aid would accomplish something, I don’t know that it would,” she said.

Summe added she did not know whether having Johnston subjected to harsh treatment by fellow prisoners would make her feel better.

“To put someone in that environment without the ability to defend themselves by not being able to hear seems to me to be somewhat extra ordinary,” she said.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kate Bumgarner had asked for a 10-year sentence.

“This is not a victimless crime,” she said. “A child whose abuse is captured in child pornography images suffers not just from the sexual abuse graphically memorialized in the images but also by a secondary victimization knowing the images of that abuse are accessible usually on the Internet and are traded by other offenders.

Johnston’s attorney, Ryan Reed, argued that Johnston deserved no prison time because he wasn’t likely to re-offend.

Reed called Dr. Ed Connor, a forensic psychologist, to the stand during the sentencing. Connor, who is treating Johnston, testified that his patient was a very low risk of being a repeat offender.

Connor said Johnston, who suffers a speech impediment because of his hearing loss, lived a sheltered life where one of his only interactions with the outside world was through the Internet. Connor said it was on the Internet that Johnston, who has never had sexual intercourse, began viewing porn.

The porn addiction eventually led to Johnston emailing four pornographic images of children from his computer to his mobile phone. That email exchange was flagged by Internet provider AOL, which alerted Kentucky’s cybercrime unit. Johnston was arrested in April.

Reed emphasized at the hearing that there was no evidence that Johnston had sexually abused any children despite the fact that he was a volunteer for the Boy Scouts and was briefly a foster parent for two young boys.

“Mr. Johnston is very isolated,” Reed said. “He lived alone in his home and he went down this very dangerous tunnel and that was the pornography. What many people do when they are alone with pornography is they tend to view more deviant types of sexually explicit images.”

Reed said that didn’t make his client a predator who needed to be locked up.”

Child porn might not lead to jail time[ Cincinnati.com 1/28/14 By Jim Hannah]