Next-Door Danger Residents Of South Pines Neighborhood Fear For Safety Of Children With Convicted Child Rapist Temporarily Living Nearby

A bright yellow school bus chugged to a stop on South Pines Road and five children hopped off in front of their day care.

Across the street, Bruce J. Johnson, who was recently convicted of repeatedly raping an exgirlfriend’s daughter, is free while he awaits a sentence the could send him to a state prison for over 14 years.

Johnson’s victim was between the ages of 5 and 7 when she was raped, court records show. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 28.

Despite the severity of the crime, Johnson’s previously clean record allowed him to slip quietly back into the neighborhood.

Not a whisper was made to the owners of two neighborhood day care services, neighbors or officials at nearby schools following Johnson’s three Nov. 18 convictions.

“How come they didn’t tell us?” wondered Michelle Howell, who runs a day care out of her home directly across the street from Johnson’s house. Howell cares for as many as 12 children five days a week.

“It would be nice to know what’s going on,” Howell said. “I think the parents have the right to know.”

Tricia Orsburn also would have appreciated a knock on the door from authorities or a flier in her mailbox. She has a 2-year-old daughter and had no idea her nextdoor neighbor is awaiting sentencing for child rape.

“Something would have been nice,” said Orsburn. “I definitely think they should’ve let everybody know.”

Additionally, both South Pines Elementary and McDonald Elementary are within a few blocks of Johnson’s home at 1626 S. Pines. About a dozen students ride the school bus or walk to houses near Johnson’s home.

Neither elementary school nor the Central Valley School District was told about Johnson’s presence.

The Sheriff’s Department only tells residents and school officials when a Level III sex offender moves into a neighborhood, said Lt. David Wiyrick. Level III offenders are considered the most likely to re-offend.

Although Johnson was convicted of first-degree statutory rape and two counts of first-degree rape of a child, he is not yet a registered sex offender, and, therefore, has not been assigned a danger level.

State law requires a sex offender to register after serving his sentence, said Deputy Prosecutor Carol Davis.

Registered or not, Howell said, Johnson should not be free until he completes his sentence.

“When they convict them, they should sentence them at the same time,” she said.

Davis urged Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor to order Johnson to spend the six weeks between the reading of the verdict and sentencing in the Spokane County Jail.

As a first-time offender convicted on three counts of child rape, Johnson faces a sentence of 12 years and two months in prison to 16 years, two months, she said.

However, O’Connor, who declined to comment because sentencing is still pending, opted to allow Johnson to live with his wife and her two young daughters.

Johnson’s neighbors and relatives of his victim said the ruling followed too closely on the heels of a similar one that allowed a North Side man who pleaded guilty to indecent liberties to remain free last summer while he awaited sentencing.

Before Jason Wickenhagen could be sentenced for an unrelated gunpoint rape attempt on a 16-year-old girl, he killed 9-year-old Rachel Carver.

Wickenhagen is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parol for killing his niece.

The Carver murder prompted Spokane Valley state Rep. Mark Sterk, a Spokane police officer, to draft a bill that would send sex offenders - even first-time offenders - immediately to jail upon conviction. He will present the draft to legislators next year.

But Johnson’s neighbors are worried about what might happen in the mean time.

Neighborhood children frequently play outside, walk to and from school, and occasionally visit Johnson’s step-daughters at his house.

Doris Fox, who runs a day care service out of her home on the corner of Pines and 17th, said she is not taking any chances.

“I will be afraid to let (the children) out until I know he’s gone,” she said.

Johnson’s victim was the daughter of a woman with whom he lived from 1988 until 1990.

The girl, who recently turned 13, told sheriff’s detectives that Johnson got into bed with her every morning before work, according to court records.

Johnson told her not to tell anyone about his morning visits and she obeyed, fearing that Johnson would hurt her, her mother or her brother, court records said.

Through his attorney, Bevan Maxey, Johnson declined a request for an interview and said he was wrongly accused.

Johnson’s niece also reported last spring that he had molested her in 1979.

Eryn Johnson, now 24, told detectives she was 8 years old when Johnson discarded the towel he was wearing and climbed into bed with her while her parents were upstairs.

She did not report the alleged incident to authorities until April 3, 1995, court documents show. By then, the statute of limitations had expired.

“It makes me mad that (she) had to go through this,” Eryn Johnson said. “There’s another girl that had to go through hell. Her childhood is gone. Bruce took that.”

Johnson was never charged for molesting Eryn and denies the allegation.

Nevertheless, Johnson’s neighbors will keep a closer eye out for the yellow school bus this month.

“When you have those kind of tendencies they’re kind of hard to break,” Howell said. “I really don’t want him living across the street from me. I don’t want to have to worry about him snaring one of my kids.”

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