From success story to repeat offender
A convict was free just two years before succumbing to his weakness for
young boys.
OCALA -- Kenneth Johnson kept a bottle of ammonia beside his computer.
When he felt the urge to look at child pornography on the Internet, he says
he would grab the bottle, unscrew the top and inhale the toxic fumes deep into
his lungs -- hoping he could train his mind to recoil from the lewd cravings.
The experiment failed.
Released from the Florida Civil Commitment Center in May 2003, Johnson lasted
just two years on the outside before succumbing to his weakness for young boys.
Ocala police arrested him in October on 22 counts of sexual battery against an
11-year-old and a 16-year-old.
During an interview at the Marion County Jail, he said he was resigned to
spending the rest of his life in prison. "I claim responsibility for being here
today," he said. ‘‘I'm hoping they hurry up and just get me back in the system
because that's where I belong right now."
FOLLOWED THE ROUTINE
Johnson, 57, spent three years in Florida's treatment center for violent sexual
offenders, where he attended group therapy sessions, took polygraph tests and
did anything else asked of him.
"That's how I got out of there. I did whatever they wanted me to do," he said.
"Two and half years later I went to the judge and said, ‘Look, I did the program;
let me go.' So the judge turned me loose."
Johnson's meek demeanor belies the 12 years he spent behind bars and the more
than 300 victims he claims to have abused during the past 40 years.
Sporting tattoos of Dennis the Menace, Mickey Mouse and Richie Rich on his
arms, he said his targets were usually boys from middle-class families.
"One of the things I learned was the more money the kids lived with the less
family ties they had," he said. "Mom and dad would buy them instead of love them,
and I took that particular advantage point to deal with them."
Though he was considered dangerous enough to be held beyond his prison sentence
in a treatment center for the state's worst predators, he was released directly
into the community with no additional monitoring or follow-up beyond what other
criminals receive.
He said his state probation officer in Marion County visited him once a week
for the first few months, but as the terms of his probation lessened, so did the
visits.
He was required to take polygraph tests but said he failed several times when
asked about viewing child pornography. There were no repercussions.
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