Five months after The Independent Weekly broke the story of the federal investigation of Assistant District Attorney J. Floyd Johnson, U.S. Attorney Stephanie Finley announced in a bill of information that the local prosecutor is being charged with a single count of tax evasion. Johnson has not filed tax returns since at least 2003 and through 2008, where he earned money as an assistant DA in the 15th Judicial District and in his private law practice, according to Tuesday’s BOI. 
The BOI is not the first time Johnson, who has been employed as a district prosecutor since 1995, has found himself on the wrong side of the law. The prosecutor, whose primary role is taking on drug offenders as head of the Zoned Area Prosecution program (created by the DA’s office to target street level and neighborhood drug dealers), apparently doesn’t think the law applies to him — and neither does his boss, DA Mike Harson. In mid-2005, the state Attorney General’s office charged Johnson in a BOI with domestic abuse battery for allegedly abusing his wife, Lysandra, over a three-day period in May 2004. Johnson denied the allegations, despite that Lysandra was admitted to the hospital with swelling in her face and a red eye.
At the time, Johnson offered to resign, but Harson instead suspended him for two weeks and ordered him to undergo anger management counseling. Harson further dismissed the seriousness of the allegations, allowing Johnson to continue to prosecute domestic violence cases. Read more here.
Astonishingly, it appears that Johnson remains on the DA’s payroll, according to a woman answering the phone at the office today and the BOI itself. Today’s Advocate quotes Harson saying he has asked Johnson to resign.
Johnson, who faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, did not return a message seeking comment on the tax evasion charge.
The BOI, which has all of the appearances of a plea bargain in the making, includes few details about the alleged illegal activities including how much Johnson owes in back taxes, but the accusations are disturbing nonetheless:
It is unclear why the U.S. attorney is charging Johnson with a single count when he did not file returns from 2003 to 2008 and the investigation involves multiple transactions and allegations Johnson lied to federal agents. The BOI accuses Johnson of:
The initial appearance and detention hearing on the matter has not yet been set before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick Hanna, according to the federal clerk’s office. If Johnson plans to plead guilty, he could ask to go straight to District Judge Richard Haik. If he pleads guilty or is found guilty of felony tax evasion he will also likely face disbarment.
One former federal prosecutor did not mince words about whether Johnson is fit to be prosecuting crimes in the district. “He should have lost [his job] the first go-round,” says the former prosecutor, who spoke to The Independent on condition of anonymity.
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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