Former P.E.I. foot clinic owner pleads guilty to prowling and voyeurism
Court documents show John Johnson was under police surveillance at time of incident
Warning: This story contains details some may find disturbing.
A man who used to operate a now-closed foot clinic with offices in Charlottetown and Stratford, P.E.I., has pleaded guilty to three charges after masturbating outside a Charlottetown woman's window.
John Wesley Johnson, 26, appeared in a Charlottetown provincial courtroom alongside his lawyer Wednesday morning. He entered guilty pleas to charges of prowling at night, observing someone for a sexual purpose, and committing an indecent act.
Johnson first made headlines last year when patients of a foot clinic he co-owned were advised to seek testing for HIV and hepatitis.
A subsequent CBC News investigation revealed he was calling himself "Dr." and doing medical procedures allegedly without any formal credentials.
He was then charged in the fall after Charlottetown Police said DNA evidence placed him at an apartment building where a woman had noticed a man outside her window, at the same place a deposit of semen was found on the wall — a story confirmed by the document listing facts agreed upon by the Crown and defence shared in court Wednesday.
Suspect identified as Johnson
According to that document, the woman who lived in the apartment first noticed a branch come through the screen of her window at around 3 a.m. on Oct. 1. She believed someone was looking into her apartment, which was on the ground floor.
When she checked outside the next morning, there were footprints around her window as well as a "fluid stain" on the wall of the building, which she reported to police.
"The evidence establishes an individual later identified as John Wesley Johnson was outside her bedroom and masturbating," read the agreed facts filed in court.
Johnson returned on the evening of Oct. 2, but by then residents of the building had set up a camera. The woman noticed him, and two men chased him unsuccessfully. Police who had been watching the movements of his vehicle later arrested him during a traffic stop.
"John Johnson was under police surveillance on his vehicle and he was arrested very quickly," read the document.
He was released that night, but police arrested him again weeks later after eventually getting warrants to search his residence and car and take a DNA sample — which matched the semen left on the wall.
Johnson was charged with three counts of prowling at night, as well as mischief, voyeurism and committing an indecent act. The Crown stayed two of the prowling charges and the mischief charge in exchange for his guilty pleas on the other charges Wednesday.
'Under police surveillance'
Another detail that emerged in court Wednesday was that despite having no criminal record, Johnson was flagged to Charlottetown Police in late August by the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS) due to a report that involved him.
This happened weeks before the October incidents for which he was charged.
The RCMP oversees ViCLAS. Investigators across the country use it to identify serial crimes and criminals, and connect them to solved or unsolved cases involving murder, sexual assault or offences with a unique sexual component, among others.
The nature of the late August report involving Johnson is not known.
The facts read out in court Wednesday say Charlottetown Police used the information from ViCLAS in the investigation, including searching for Johnson's personalized license plate in the recognition system.
Johnson's lawyer requested that a pre-sentence report be completed before he is sentenced on May 7.
Charlottetown Police say they are still investigating whether anything criminal happened at Johnson's foot clinic, saying they have not ruled out charges.
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