Tuesday, February 08, 2000
Rapist doesn't want 'predator' label
He'll seek ruling from court today
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A man who spent 21 years in prison for raping a mentally handicapped boy will argue in court today that he does not deserve the label “sexual predator.”
Prosecutors say he does not deserve even to be out of prison.
Robert T. Johnson, 39, was scheduled for the sexual-offender hearing after he was paroled from prison in January.
Mr. Johnson served 21 years for taking part in the kidnapping and rape of a 15-year-old boy on Sept. 10, 1978. In 1979, he was sentenced to six to 25 years.
“Someone like that should spend every minute of his sentence in prison,” Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said Monday. “It's absolutely unbelievable that he's out.”
Prosecutors say Mr. Johnson and two others abducted the boy at the University Plaza shopping center in Clifton at 1 a.m.
They say the three men drove the handicapped child to Union Terminal, where they raped him, burned him with cigarettes and beat him with belts, hubcaps and tennis rackets. The men then put the boy in the trunk of a car, drove to a wooded location and raped him again, prosecutors say.
After their arrest, an attorney for one of the men said the attackers committed the crime after they became outraged by the treatment of black characters in the television movie Roots.
The attorney said the attackers targeted the victim, who is white, to avenge the treatment of slaves at the hands of white owners.
At the court hearing Tuesday, Judge Robert Kraft will decide whether to classify Mr. Johnson as a sexual predator. Under Ohio law, a sexual predator designation means offenders must register with the sheriff so deputies can notify neighbors that the offenders are living in the community.
Mr. Johnson's attorney, Norman Aubin, said he will argue that the sex-offender rules should not apply to his client because the law was passed after Mr. Johnson went to prison.
“The guy pled and did his time,” Mr. Aubin said. “We'll see what the judge says about it.”
Mr. Allen said he was not aware Mr. Johnson had been released from prison until the court hearing was scheduled this week.
Parole authorities could not be reached for comment Monday. But a spokesman confirmed that Mr. Johnson was released Jan. 24.
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