Story Photos
 Photo by Greg Ebersole Christine Johanson waits in a courtroom of the Columbia County Courthouse in St. Helens, Ore., on Wednesday morning for her sentencing hearing to begin. |
Johanson gets a year in jail
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 11:34 PM PDT
By Janine Manny
Printable version
E-mail this articleAgreeing with expert witnesses that treatment is more important than prison time, Columbia County Circuit Court Ted Grove sentenced Christine Marie Johanson Wednesday to a year in the Columbia County Jail.
Johanson, 36, pleaded guilty on Aug. 31 to four counts of third-degree rape after admitting to having sex with a 15-year-old Rainier boy in Oregon in 2006.
The former Rainier teacher's aide was ordered to surrender herself to the county jail Thursday at 5 p.m. to start the first of four consecutive 90-day jail terms. No reductions of time are possible, Grove said.
"I do believe that a significant period of incarceration is appropriate," Grove told Johanson after a full day of testimony in her sentencing hearing. He said the state had made a "reasonable" request under the guidelines for 30 months in an Oregon state prison.
However, Grove said he departed from the recommendation because the state does not provide treatment for sex offenders in prison.
Grove said that Johanson is amenable to treatment, and allowing her therapist to continue treating her in Columbia County is the best way to ensure Johanson does not offend again.
"I want to express how deeply sorry I am for (the victim's) family, my family, my friends and my church family," a tearful Johanson said before she was sentenced. "I'm sorry for the poor choices I've made which have brought us to this point. I am embarrassed and ashamed to be standing here today."
Johanson, who held a Bible and cried through much of the testimony, said she understood there was no way to could undo her "terrible mistakes," but she wanted to sincerely apologize.
In August, Johanson was sentenced to six months in Cowlitz County Superior Court after pleading guilty to having sex with the same Rainier boy in Longview between March and May last year. That six-month sentence imposed by Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Steve Warning will run concurrently with Johanson's Oregon sentence.
Columbia County Deputy District Attorney John Berg asked for a 30-month prison sentence because he said Johanson chose a troubled, vulnerable victim and used her authority as an instructional assistant with the Rainier School District and youth leader at the Rainier Community Church of God to pursue the boy.
"This is also about community protection," Berg said. "We need to treat her like any other predator. We need to not treat women differently than men. This needs to be a signal to church and school officials that this behavior is not to be tolerated in Columbia County."
Kristin Carrico, Rainier School District Special Education Director and principal of the district's North Columbia Academy charter school, testified that Johanson's actions had greatly upset the district's special education staff.
"The staff saw it as a betrayal of trust," she said. "They were charged with keeping kids safe. They wonder what they could have done better, and they are upset it happened on their watch."
After discovery of Johanson's relationship with the boy, Carrico said, the boy acted out inappropriately in class and would shout that he should get "special privileges because he'd had sex with a teacher."
The victim's mother soon moved him to another school district.
Charlotte Rosen, a licensed counselor with experience in sexual abuse treatment, has been the boy's therapist for a year.
"He has had a decrease in self-esteem," she said. "He covers that by swaggering and boasting."
Rosen said the victim told her he feels he has been branded.
"He feels that everyone knows about it and it will follow him the rest of his life," she said. "He has lost many things. He lost the chance to play football, to go on a regular date with a girl, to go to the prom and to graduate in the regular way."
Rosen said that Johanson "groomed" the boy for the relationship and encouraged him to misbehave in school so he would be removed from class and they could leave campus to have sex.
Rosen said the Johanson continued to pursue him even after he tried breaking the relationship off before authorities discovered in on Sept. 1, 2006.
The victim's mother testified that the ordeal has been a "nightmare."
She said Johanson started offering to give her son a ride home from church, football practice and other places. Sometimes, the mother said, she didn't know where her son was and Johanson would offer to help, often when the boy already was with her.
"She convinced him that I didn't love him and that nobody at school liked him," the victim's mother said. "She took his self-esteem. He can't date. He had to change schools. It's been horrible."
Debbie Bensching, a clinical social worker from Portland, has been counseling Johanson for nearly a year. She said Johanson suffers from a dependent personality disorder, with a secondary anxiety disorder and mood disorder.
She said Johanson appears to be more functional than she appears and is submissive, insecure and in constant need of direction and reassurance.
Bensching said Johanson was going through a breakdown in her marriage at the time and needed someone to take care of her. She said Johanson's immaturity, impaired judgment, distorted self image and indiscriminate decision-making led her to turn to a 15-year-old boy instead of an adult.
Bensching said Johanson is making progress in therapy and would benefit by continuing the treatment program.
Steve Jensen, a therapist who has been treating sex offenders for 34 years, said he conducted an eight-hour evaluation on Johanson. His diagnosis of Johanson was similar to Bensching's. He testified that Johanson passed a polygraph test in which she said there were no other victims.
Jensen said he considered Johanson a "low risk" to reoffend. He told the court Johanson would need five to seven years of therapy.
"A treatment program, in the long run, will keep her from reoffending," he said.
Jensen said female sex offenders tend to blame the victim in some way and that society does not force females to take full responsibility.
"If a 30-year-old man was involved with a 15-year-old girl, people would clearly see there was something wrong," he said.
Greg Johanson, Christine Johanson's husband, also spoke to the court.
"When I first learned about it, I was hurt like you can't imagine," he said. "My first response was to get away. But she was suicidal ... I ended up looking deeply at myself and praying a lot. I made a commitment for better or worse, and this is the worst ever."
Greg Johanson said that he loves his wife, they have two daughters, and marriage counseling has strengthened their relationship.
"I have identified areas that I had pulled away from the family and she had a need to find someone else," he acknowledged.
He said the therapy has made his wife stronger, more open and assertive.
"There is a slow and steady change," he said. "If I didn't see it getting better, I wouldn't stay."
Groves' sentence also included five years' supervised parole after her release, continuing the sex offender treatment program, submitting to polygraphs, avoiding all contact with the victim and males under the age of 18 and reimbursing the victim's family for counseling costs up to $10,000.
"If you do not follow through or break probation, you could face an excess of eight years in the state penitentiary," Grove said.
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