Victims did not want sex case retried, DA says

When a Sonoma County judge vacated the 2003 sexual felony convictions of Sonoma wrestling coach Jonathan Johnson last year, Sonoma County District Attorney Stephen Passalacqua was given a choice, one he shared with the victims and their families. Retry the case or negotiate a resolution.

Reliving the painful details of how Johnson “violated a position of trust” was something nobody wanted to endure during another trial, Passalacqua told the Sun. “They were in agreement,” he said of the victims. “It was time to close the chapter and move on.”

Johnson, now 27, was convicted of 41 charges of felony sexual acts against 14 underage girls, many connected with the Adele Harrison wrestling team he coached. In a decision announced Monday, his prison term has been reduced from a possible 190 years to a maximum of 18 years.

“It brings some finality to the case,” said Passalacqua, something the victims and families thought they had already achieved. “To be told it’s over, and then learn that it’s not – you can imagine the kind of emotional and psychological scars that resurface.”

Passalacqua said the restructured sentence is about what Johnson was offered when first charged. “It’s a fair resolution. If he would have known he was facing a life sentence, he would have resolved it then.”

Inadequate advice from his initial lawyer Chris Andrian, to which Andrian admitted in a hearing a year ago, was the reason Johnson’s conviction was vacated. An earlier appeal had failed.

Defense attorney Jamie Thistlethwaite and prosecutor Marianna Green said Monday’s agreement was fair. Johnson does not deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison, and a new trial would have been traumatic for the victims.

All but one of the girls testified at his trial that they willingly engaged in sex acts with Johnson, but California law prohibits adults from having sex with minors under any circumstances. Six of the girls were between 12 and 14 years old.

The first documented case occurred when he was 18. The predatory behavior, which included interludes at his apartment, a school locker room, his mother’s house and in a car in the high school parking lot, continued for two years.

Johnson is now at San Quentin. With nearly six years already served, he could be eligible for parole by 2018.