AUBURN — A former Little League and youth basketball coach convicted of sex crimes was headed back to prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to violating conditions of his probation.
Michael Johnson
Michael Johnson, 44, of Poland admitted in Androscoggin County Superior Court that he violated five conditions of his probation. He denied he violated two other conditions also alleged by his probation officer.
Johnson was ordered to serve an additional 18 months of his sentence from earlier convictions. He had been released from prison in November after serving five years of an eight-year sentence.
Johnson also pleaded guilty to dissemination of sexually explicit materials while in prison in 2005, a Class B felony. He was sentenced to five years in prison on that charge, all of it suspended. He also must serve two years of probation.
Since his release from prison in the fall, Johnson had been forbidden from having contact with children under the age of 18.
His probation officer said Johnson violated that condition when, in January, he allegedly drove an 8-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy in his vehicle with their mother. He didn't admit to that allegation when he appeared in court for a hearing Wednesday.
He denied another violation alleged by his probation officer who said Johnson, in January, viewed nude Polaroid pictures of his past teenage victims at a South Paris home.
Johnson admitted to failing to comply with terms of the Maine Sex Offender Registry and report his self-employment with an exotic dancing business, called American Beauties. He also sex-texted a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl.
He was sentenced in 2004 to eight years in prison but served less than five.
In 2003, police charged Johnson with sexually abusing young girls in the 1980s. After that arrest, the charges kept coming.
Police said Johnson prowled Kennedy Park in Lewiston, looking for girls between 14 and 16 years old to dance for him and have sex with him.
Johnson plied the girls with alcohol and drugs while convincing them to dance nude for him and have sex for money, police said. The former coach also paid his victims to recruit other teenage girls to do similar work for money, according to court records.
In 2004, Johnson admitted that he raped three teenage girls in the 1980s and sexually abused two others in October 2002 and May 2003.
He also admitted to giving the young girls alcohol and drugs, paying one for sex and distributing pornographic material showing young children engaged in sexual acts.
In total, Johnson pleaded guilty to eight felonies and two misdemeanors, including gross sexual misconduct, dissemination of sexually explicit material, aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs, sexual abuse of a minor and patronizing prostitution of a minor.
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