With a trial date looming less than three weeks away, Donald M. Johnson filed a plea agreement in the securities trial against him on Oct. 27, 2023. His trial was scheduled to begin on Nov. 13.
Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer accepted the plea agreement, albeit reluctantly, on Jan. 25. Under the terms of that agreement, Johnson, 59, of Porter, agreed to plead guilty to one count of broker-dealer registration violation, a Class C felony. The additional 14 counts against him were dismissed as terms of the plea.
Johnson agreed to pay $604,500 in restitution to six victims of his real estate schemes, even though his guilty plea involved one victim. The amount owed to the victims ranged from $19,000 to $242,500. He also was sentenced to serve four years on probation.
In the ensuing months, the court and special prosecutors wrangled to determine how much Johnson had in assets through his multiple real estate holdings and whether a receiver should take over those properties and use the income from them to pay back his victims.
Johnson had been paying $500 a month but after a hearing in early October, Clymer upped the amount to a one-time payment of $40,000, due Monday, followed by $5,000 monthly payments starting next June, and plans for a receiver were dropped.
Now, Johnson again finds himself about to stand before Judge Clymer. Johnson missed the payment due Monday; by late Wednesday afternoon, the court issued a warrant for his arrest stating his probation was being revoked because he had violated its terms.
As of Thursday afternoon, Johnson was not in custody. Per the warrant, provided by the court, he is to be held without bond when he is taken into custody.
In addition to missing the restitution payment, Johnson, according to the warrant, had to find a job or pursue training to get one and keep the court updated on his job status, which he also failed to do. The warrant states that on Aug. 2, Johnson “applied for Certificate of Organization of Protective Tactics LLC which is a business in Chesterton, Indiana.”
The Indiana Secretary of State’s business search portal reflects that Johnson is a registered agent for the business, created on Aug. 2.
“The defendant was given a deadline of October 21, 2024 to pay $40,000.00 towards restitution. Mr. Johnson failed to pay this amount and has not paid anything since September 23, 2024. The defendant agreed to this amount and has failed to comply. It is respectfully recommended that the Court re-examine the defendant’s ability to pay. His tentative release date from probation is scheduled for January 19, 2028,” the warrant states.
What the revocation of probation means for Johnson’s case, other than his impending arrest and being held without bond, isn’t immediately clear. Once he’s in custody, he will have a hearing before Clymer to determine the next steps forward.
Clymer has been openly agitated with Johnson through multiple hearings, including telling Johnson that his “days of lying are almost done” during a July 19 court hearing and expressing frustration with Johnson’s lack of transparency about his finances. Clymer yanked Johnson’s public defender during a May 30 hearing when it became apparent he had the financial means to pay for his own attorney.
The allegations against Johnson stretch back to around 2007 and include multiple victims who, according to charging documents, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate investments gone bad when they did not get the returns they were promised and couldn’t get back the money they put into the deals.
Charges against Johnson were filed in March 2014. He was initially charged with 14 counts related to securities fraud, Class C felonies at the time. Two months later he was charged with one count of forgery, also a Class C felony, and two counts of theft, Class D felonies, in a related case.
An appellate court ruling trimmed that to 15 counts after determining that the statute of limitations had run out for one of the victim’s claims but the rest of the charges could stand.
alavalley@chicagotribune.com