Saturday, September 13, 2008

Officer Rick Johnson Charged With Sexual Abuse is Fired

Altoona City Council fires a police officer charged with sexual abuse.

It happened at Wednesday night’s city council meeting.

Everyone there voted to fire Rick Johnson. Erik Cagle was the only council member not at the meeting.

Johnson is accused of having sex with a sixteen year old girl back in July.

According to the criminal complaint he picked the girl up in Indiana and took her to an Ohio motel to have sex. Then he brought her back to his house in Altoona. The two met on a police mentor website called policelink.com.

Johnson was originally suspended from the force.

He waived his preliminary hearing on September 8th. He’ll face charges of endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of a minor. At this point there's no word yet on a trial date.

When the case does go to trial the State Attorney General’s office will be prosecuting.

The Blair County District Attorney asked the state to step in so there would be no conflict of interest.

There’s still no word on whether or not Johnson will get his pension. That decision is up to the police pension board.

No one at city hall would comment on either the pension issue or his firing in general.

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