A former public school principal on the lam for five years after he admitted to having a sexual affair with a young girl was brought back to Queens Friday to face his long-awaited punishment, the Queens district attorney said.
Leroy Johnson, 46, formerly of Meyer Avenue in Jamaica, will soon be serving his 20-year prison sentence for molesting a girl, who was a young relative of his, from the time she was 9 until she was 14, Queens DA Richard Brown said. Johnson, who was the principal of PS 25 in Brooklyn from 2000 to his arrest in 2003, initially pleaded guilty to the charge in 2004, but right before he was sentenced he skipped his $100,000 bail and moved to Connecticut, according to Brown.
The fugitive’s ruse was thwarted when federal agents noticed he was using phony Social Security cards, according to the DA.
“The defendant was convicted of having betrayed the trust of a young girl and having stolen her childhood when he engaged in sexual relations with her. By jumping bail and going on the run for five years, all he managed to accomplish was to postpone the starting date of his imprisonment,” Brown said in a statement.
The affair with the girl began in September 1998 and continued for five years, according to the DA. The sexual encounters would take place weekly at his home, Brown said.
After jumping his bail, Johnson moved to an apartment in New Haven, Conn., under the name “Desmond Williams,” according to the DA. In April, federal agents arrested Johnson for attempting to get a Social Security card for another alias, “Jayden Gibson,” Brown said.
A fingerprint search revealed Johnson’s true identity and in June he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the Social Security Administration. He was sentenced last week to time served on the Social Security violation and extricated back to Queens to face indictment on a bail jumping charge in the molestation case, the DA said.
Brown said the principal would begin his prison sentence Jan. 5.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.