Former Saugerties Police Officer Dion Johnson was arraigned in Ulster County Court in late September on an eleven-count indictment for alleged crimes committed between 2020-2021, including counts of Burglary in the Second Degree, a class C Felony, Sex Abuse in the First Degree, a class D Felony, along with other offenses relating to unwanted sexual contact and workplace sexual harassment.
The charges came from an Ulster County Grand Jury on Thursday, September 26, and Johnson was arraigned before Judge Bryan Rounds four days later.
The conduct alleged in the indictment included Johnson’s stalking and harassment of a female victim, and a sexual assault and burglary of the same victim in late August of 2020. In July of 2020 through October of 2021, Johnson is alleged to have repeatedly engaged in criminal conduct while in uniform, including workplace sexual harassment against two unnamed female Saugerties police department (SPD) officers.
“Like everyone else, Dion Johnson is not above the law,” read an October 3 press release from administrative assistant district attorney Sajaa Ahmed.
“The Saugerties Police Department received a complaint alleging that officer Dion Johnson, who resigned in August of this year, was involved in misconduct,” said SPD Chief K.J. Swart in the press release. “Resulting from that allegation, an investigation was conducted by the New York State Attorney General’s Office and later by the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office. Law enforcement’s greatest strength is public trust. When there is an allegation of misconduct by a police officer, that trust begins to erode, so it is important that these allegations are taken seriously and properly investigated.”
The fruits of the investigation were first revealed on Friday, July 7, 2023 when New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office (LEMIO) released a report maintaining that the SPD referred complaints against Johnson to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) as required by law enforcement agencies for any officer receiving at least five complaints in a two-year period, and that after a thorough investigation, LEMIO concluded that Johnson was subject not only to complaints, but also disciplinary action by the SPD as a result of his alleged misconduct. Johnson’s prior history with the Albany Police Department (APD), where he worked prior to coming to Saugerties, was also reviewed by LEMIO. The report found that the SPD was not made fully aware of allegations that Johnson made untruthful statements about overtime eligibility between January and February 2020 while at the APD.
According to the report, the SPD suspended Johnson for ten days and placed him on probation for one year after the allegations by the member of the public and two SPD officers; LEMIO recommended that the SPD go much further, terminating Johnson’s employment and updating its own policies and practices regarding sexual misconduct and internal personnel investigations.
In August 2020, a civilian Saugerties resident filed a complaint that Johnson subjected her to repeated harassment, including sending inappropriate messages and pictures on social media. Johnson was also alleged to have sexually assaulted the woman in her home while on duty in late August 2020. The complainant provided the SPD and the OAG with images taken from a motion-triggered camera inside her kitchen following an August 31 voicemail left for then-SPD Chief Joseph Sinagra alleging that Johnson was “in my apartment at 2 o’clock in the morning, when’s he’s supposed to be working, in uniform on my cameras … I think it’s best if you spoke to him about harassing females in the community[.]”
According to the report, the complainant also provided the SPD with a video recording of a conversation with Johnson on September 2, 2020 where she approached the officer who was parked in his patrol car outside of her home in the early hours of the morning. The report claims Johnson said he was “doing a stakeout for across the street,” and that the woman said, “…why am I so mad at you because you are fucking lying bro. You know exactly what the fuck you did and you need to leave me the fuck alone, get off my fucking property and step on my property again and [the Chief of Police] is going to get a fucking phone call and stay the fuck away from me.”
“Officer Johnson’s conduct with respect to Complainant #1 is extremely troubling,” read LEMIO’s report. “As an initial matter, we concur with the SPD’s determination that his admitted actions violated SPD policies on Unbecoming Conduct, Neglect of Duty, and Leaving Post.”
“We also conclude that it is more likely than not that Officer Johnson engaged in nonconsensual physical contact with Complainant #1 and that he was not truthful during his sworn interview with the SPD investigator,” continued the LEMIO report. “While it is difficult to determine with certainty exactly what transpired between Officer Johnson and Complainant #1, particularly given her decision not to provide an in-person statement to either the SPD or the OAG, we found the telephonic and email statements that she made both to the OAG and SPD to be credible, consistent over time, and supported by the video and images that she provided.”
Of the two female officers, the first alleged that Johnson had sent her a message on Snapchat in July 2020 suggesting that she “engage in a sexual act” with Johnson and another SPD officer; she further alleged that on September 24, 2020, Johnson walked inside the SPD squad room where the officer showed him her new ballistic vest. “According to Officer #1, Officer Johnson walked over, placed his hand on the area beneath her nametag, and said, ‘I touched your boob’ and ‘how did they feel?’ Officer #1 told him that she felt uncomfortable and pushed his hand away.”
The second officer alleged that in the afternoon of October 18, 2021, she walked over to a candy box to take a piece of candy, and when she turned back around Johnson was standing “extremely close” to her, “probably like within an inch and a half,” and that Johnson made her extremely uncomfortable by placing his right hand on her lower waist and moving it inside of her belt between her taser and baton, placing his other hand on her shoulder for around 30-40 seconds.
Later, the officer alleged that Johnson jokingly told another officer that she was “hitting on him” and “trying to be his work wife.”
Johnson’s accounts of the allegations by the civilian and two female officers differed greatly, but the LEMIO report disagreed.
“Based on these acts, we conclude that Officer Johnson engaged in a pattern of misconduct with respect to Complainant #1, Officer #1, and Officer #2 in violation of SPD policies prohibiting sexual harassment, unbecoming conduct, neglect of duty, and leaving post,” reads the report. “Given the pattern of misconduct regarding Complainant #1 and Officers #1 and #2, we recommend that Officer Johnson be subject to termination, which would be consistent with recommended sanctions at other agencies.”
After his arraignment on September 30, Johnson was released to pretrial supervision following an application by the District Attorney for $25,000 cash bail.
“The conduct in this case is thoroughly disappointing and intolerable for anyone in law enforcement,” said District Attorney Emmanuel C. Nneji. “It has the capacity to hemorrhage and severely tarnish the reputation of the Saugerties police officers and everyone who honorably serves in law enforcement. It undermines public faith in the integrity of police work and criminal prosecutions, and it can grossly impact otherwise credible criminal investigations if an officer who engages in such conduct were to become a key witness and cross-examined in a criminal case. Dion Johnson’s conduct as charged in the indictment is simply unacceptable for an officer.”
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