A former Antelope Valley man convicted a second time of five misdemeanor counts involving video footage of women filmed under their skirts without their knowledge was sentenced Friday to five years behind bars — a term that will go along with a 15 1/2-year prison sentence he already is serving.
The appellate court panel found in its March 10 ruling that there was “substantial evidence to support convictions” on the five counts in question.
But the panel noted that “the evidence of identifiability was not overwhelming” and that “some of the challenged counts presented a close case.”
The appeals court justices upheld Johnson’s conviction on one felony count each of sexual battery by fraud and false imprisonment, along with seven other misdemeanor counts involving the video footage. He was serving a 15-year-six-month prison term on those counts.
The felony charges stemmed from Johnson falsely claiming that he was a security guard at a Lancaster Kmart store and patting down the woman while he claimed to be looking for stolen merchandise in February 2013, according to Deputy District Attorney Theodore Swanson.
He was arrested at a Target store in March 2013 when a customer reported that he was following her and her sister through the store.
In its ruling, the appellate court panel noted that jurors were shown video footage Johnson had recorded in which he followed women and filmed under their skirts without their knowledge. The videos were recorded at various locations, including stores in Lancaster, Metrolink stations and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, according to the ruling.
“In some cases, the resulting footage did not capture the women’s faces, or their profiles,” the appellate court justices noted in the ruling.
Johnson was retried and convicted July 27 of five misdemeanor counts of filming or photographing an “identifiable person” under or through that person’s clothing to view the person’s body or undergarments.
— City News Service