Dan Johnson (Kentucky politician)

On October 18, 1960, Danny Ray Johnson was born to Jerry J. and Charlene Blocker Johnson in Bastrop, Louisiana; he was the middle child between sisters Teresa (older) and Rita (younger).[2] Johnson graduated from Bastrop High School in 1979,[3] and left home when 17 years old. By his early 20s, Johnson had fathered a child, divorced his first wife—Tylia Harris, and filed for bankruptcy in Louisiana.[2] Per his 1985 Jefferson County Police Department arrest record, Johnson was 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).[4] Johnson married his second wife, Rebecca Wilson (born (1961-08-17)August 17, 1961), in Jefferson County, Kentucky on February 14, 1987.[2] By 2017, Johnson resided in Mount Washington, Kentucky,[5] and had five children. Johnson was known for his hate speech, Facebook posts, "and general derision for African-Americans and Muslims".[3]

On October 18, 1985, police in Louisville, Kentucky found two people about to set fire to Johnson's car. The suspects told police that Johnson had paid them over US$200 to burn the car. Johnson initially signed a police report saying the vehicle was stolen, but later admitted to the insurance fraud scheme. Felony and misdemeanor charges were dismissed after Johnson completed a six-month diversion program. In later years, Johnson said: "When the car came up missing, I didn't know what happened to the car. It was vandalized."[3]

To Johnson's claim of having been the "White House Chaplain" to Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, an expert in the field confirmed that no such position exists; all three presidential libraries also confirmed "find[ing] no connection between Johnson and the White House". The Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles refuted Johnson's claim of setting up safe zones in that city during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, not only by virtue of not having seen the "golden-haired preacher from Kentucky" among the rioting people of color, but also because there were no "safe zones" during the six-day incident.[3]

Johnson regularly told of how he rushed to Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks, created an impromptu morgue, and administered last rites to victims for two weeks. Storm Swain, a professor of theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia who authored a book on chaplains at Ground Zero, invalidated every aspect of Johnson's September 11 claims. In 2017, the Office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York knew nobody who remembered Johnson.[3] Johnson's 2016 and 2017 financial disclosures listed New York workers' compensation as his only source of income.[6][5]

Johnson had claimed, at times under oath, to hold a Doctor of Theology, a Doctor of Philosophy,[1] and a Doctor of Divinity, the last of these from Kingsway University and Theological Seminary in Des Moines, Iowa; Kingsway confirmed that Johnson studied there, but said he did not graduate. In his 2016 election campaign, Johnson claimed that Ted Nugent had endorsed his election during a rally at Bowman Field; spokeswomen for the musician and airport both said they had no record of this.[3]

Johnson pointed to a childhood miracle as the incident that spurred his religiosity. Johnson said that a childhood accident with a BB gun left him blinded in one or both of his eyes, and that his parents took him to a physician. Johnson would later say that he was seven years old when his blindness was miraculously cured. During his adolescence, Johnson attended the Swartz First Assembly of God Church in Monroe, Louisiana; Pastor Gerald Lewis recalls that Johnson, to whom he was a father figure and mentor, stopped attending church without warning or explanation.[3] After graduating high school at age 17, Johnson left Bastrop to work with the McKeithens—a Christian missions group based out of Nashville, Tennessee—for two years.[2]

When Dr. David Fischer was pastor of the Living Waters Church in Pasadena, California, he wrote a letter supporting alleged miracles performed by Johnson while Johnson was on a short-term mission to South America; Fischer said in his June 1991 correspondence that Johnson had cured a Venezuelan man of deafness and resurrected a Colombian man: "He spoke to death and commanded it to leave."[3]

Foreclosure

Buildings at the former Heart of Fire Church property in September 2021

In the 1990s, the Clinton administration's Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) began offering loan guarantees to rebuild black churches that were victims of arson. In 2003, Heart of Fire received the third-largest of these federal loans for $1.5 million; the church used the money to buy the chancel it was leasing, and build a new fellowship hall-cum-bar. In 2019, Clinton-era HUD secretary Henry Cisneros described Heart of Fire's purchase and construction as not "meet[ing] the criteria that we originally had set". Less than a month after securing the guaranteed loan, and for the next 14 years, Johnson failed to have the loan forgiven. In 2009, the US federal government obtained the mortgage for Heart of Fire. In February 2018, HUD secured a court order of sale for the church—valued at $634,000 (equivalent to about $726,000 in 2022)[9]—as the non-profit was more than $2.4M in debt to the national government. Heart of Fire was scheduled to hold a May 20, 2018 auction ("antiques, appliances, furniture, Harley Davidson parts and commercial kitchen equipment"), the purpose of which was described to WDRB by Pastor Rebecca Johnson as:[11]

In 2000 our church was arsoned. It was considered a" hate crime". In 2001We started the process of filing under the Law passed by Pres Bill Clinton to restore arsoned churches. We received our first correspondence on Sept 5, 2001 from Hudd. […] Our church took up the restoration project in 2003 […]. We were initially supposed to get Grant as all other churches that filed did. They ran out of Grant money and said do it as a gaurnteed loan, Hud official in DC said we will get other funding. That never happened. This has been in court for years trying to get funds promised. Things were looking good till Dan died. They said he was dead on paper so none of the testimony counts from Dan or DC Hudd. So I ve signed with a Realtor and we're selling the property to pay the debt and relocate. […] We have an auction Sunday for items not needed in order to pay off part of construction loan put on my home. [sic]

At age eight, Maranda Richmond first attended Heart of Fire Church in 2004 with her father. She became friends with the Johnson children and considered Dan Johnson "a second dad". Richmond attended parties and sleepovers that were held at the church building as well as the Johnsons' house; occasionally alcoholic drinks were provided to the children by Johnson and other adults.[3] Richmond told the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (KyCIR) that she was raped by Johnson 15 days after her 17th birthday (the night of December 31, 2012);[12] she had been staying with his daughter in the apartment under the fellowship hall. The following day, the two exchanged messages over Facebook:[3]

Richmond and her parents went to the police in April 2013, but after failing to secretly record a confession from Johnson, the case was closed with no charges filed. Richmond saw a mental health professional the summer of 2013, and presented her "psychosocial assessment, notes and progress reports" to the KyCIR in 2017; the onetime honors student and drum major at Louisville Male High School had exhibited symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. After the KyCIR began investigating Johnson, the Louisville Metro Police Department reached out to Richmond and reopened the case at her request, but had made no actions as of five months later.[3]

In the 2010s, Johnson began to zealously express right-wing and libertarian political sentiments.[3]

On December 11, 2017, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (KyCIR) released an exposé on Johnson ("The Pope's Long Con"), the culmination of over seven months of investigations and 100+ interviews. Both Democrats and Republicans called for his resignation from the Kentucky General Assembly. The Republican governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, called the representative "an embarrassment", while the Democratic mayor of Louisville Metro initiated a review of Richmond's 2013 allegations.[3]

The north end of the Salt River bridge carrying Greenwell Ford Road

Johnson's gravestone and accompanying bench in Mount Washington, Kentucky

Johnson held a news conference two days later at Heart of Fire Church where he denied the accusations of sexual assault,[17] instead saying that Richmond's claims stemmed from their political differences.[18] That afternoon at 4:59 p.m., Johnson posted a rambling missive to Facebook.[19] After pinging the assemblyman's phone, police found his body on the north bank of the Salt River in Mount Washington, Kentucky; standing by his car at the nearby bridge, he had shot himself in the head[20] with a .40-caliber pistol.[21] The time of death was recorded as 8:20 p.m. The next day, Rebecca Johnson told reporters, "These high-tech lynchings based on lies and half-truths can’t be allowed to win the day"; on Today, she blamed the KyCIR ("that little greasy reporter") for her husband's death.[3] Dan Johnson was interred in a Mount Washington cemetery on December 18, 2017.[22]

Nominated by the Bullitt County Republican Party, Rebecca Johnson sought election to her husband's position as state representative from the 49th District.[23] Of the 4947 votes cast in the February 20, 2018 special election, Democrat Linda H. Belcher received 68.45 percent;[24] Johnson blamed electoral fraud for her loss. By February 2018, both women were registered for the 2018 general election,[25] though Johnson withdrew the following month, saying, "I feel my time can be best served with my family and my ministry".[9]

• George Santos, U.S. House of Representatives member known for having lied extensively about his past
• Douglas R. Stringfellow, one-term Utah congressman known for having lied extensively about his past

• Media related to Dan Johnson at Wikimedia Commons