Children involved in rape case

Intelligencer Journal Lancaster New Era
Jan 18, 2010 20:56 EST Lancaster

The crimes were horrific: a 16-year-old boy rapes a 4-year-old girl.

A 9-year-old boy walks in and sees the act.

Over the course of the next weeks, the 16-year-old rapes the 9-year-old, the younger boy said.

Then the 9-year-old rapes the 4-year-old.

Anthony James Johnson was that 16-year-old boy. Today the former city resident is 23 years old, serving time in a state prison on an unrelated robbery charge.

His crimes came to light when his male victim came forward and talked about what happened to him in 2003, leading investigators to contact the girl, who corroborated his description of the incidents.

Last week, a jury found Johnson guilty of raping the girl.

But the jurors were deadlocked on the charges that Johnson raped the boy.

Lancaster County Judge Joseph Madenspacher declared a mistrial on those charges, for which Johnson could be retried in the future.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph McMahon, the prosecutor, said the district attorney's office will review the possibility of another trial after consulting with police and the victim.

Johnson already is doing a six- to 12-year sentence for a robbery with a handgun. He now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for the rape. The mandatory minimum is actually 10 years, but was five years when the act was committed.

Attorneys for both sides said it was a harrowing case.

"This is about as bad a case as you can imagine," McMahon said.

Said Johnson's court-appointed defense attorney, Michael Marinaro, "It was a very difficult case."

With regard to his actions, the boy testified that he was a child when he was raped, that it didn't seem like it was wrong and nobody ever did anything about it, McMahon said.

The tragedy didn't end there.

Marinaro said that the boy was found guilty as a juvenile on rape charges for acts he later committed against three other young girls from the time he was 10 to 12 years old. He was placed into a secured facility for juvenile sex offenders.

While there, the boy, now 16, revealed that he had sexual relations with the 4-year-old. He also said Johnson had sex with him, and said that led him to have sex with the little girls.

The 4-year-old victim, now 10, never told anyone what happened to her. But when the boy revealed what had happened, she acknowledged the rapes by him and Johnson, McMahon said.

The jury, both attorneys agreed, believed the girl's testimony. But they evidently had some problems with the boy's.

"They didn't get 12 to convict or 12 to find him not guilty," McMahon said.

Said Marinaro, "Evidently they didn't find it credible, because they didn't find him guilty."

Within the next three months, the court will hold a hearing to determine if Johnson is a sexually violent predator.

"He still will be subjected to Megan's Law," Marinaro said. "He's going to be under a watchful eye for the rest of his life."

From: http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/247645