Man convicted of child sexual abuse in Othello

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man convicted of sexually abusing two girls in Othello was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison Thursday, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Oregon.

Albert Wayne Johnson, 42, was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison and 10 years of supervised release, according to the statement.

According to court documents, on August 8, 2022, officers with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of two minors abandoned at Barton Park in Boring, Oregon. The children told officers they had met Johnson on Snapchat and that he drove them from Washington state through Idaho to Oregon, sexually abusing both of them during the drive. Along the way, Johnson stopped at a motel in Othello, Washington, where he abused the children, and at a campground near La Grande, where he continued to abuse one of the children. After arriving in Boring, Johnson left the children at a campground in Barton Park and never returned.

In August 2022, Othello Police Department investigators contacted the Othello motel after receiving information about the abductions and abuse that had occurred and obtained surveillance footage that showed Johnson with the two children, the statement said. Officers and deputies from the La Grande Police Department, Union County Sheriff’s Office, Union County Probation Department and Umatilla Tribal Police located Johnson at his La Grande residence and arrested him on an outstanding warrant for a probation violation.

Johnson was charged in October of that year with coercion and enticement of a minor and transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, the statement said. In November 2022, a federal grand jury in Portland handed down a three-count indictment accusing Johnson of traveling across state lines to commit a sexual act with a minor and committing a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity transporting and commissioning sex offenses committed by a registered sex offender.

On Jan. 24, Johnson pleaded guilty to transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.

This case was filed as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Justice Department in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, the statement said. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.