Teacher indicted in Child Haven case

Erica Johnson

Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2002 | 8:58 a.m.

A Clark County prosecutor provided very little explanation Monday as to why it took 21 months to indict a man for alleged lewdness with a student at a school for abused and neglected children.

In an indictment unsealed Friday before District Court Judge Mark Gibbons, Duane Johnson, 36, is charged with two counts of lewdness with a child under the age of 14, one count of open or gross lewdness and one count of indecent exposure.

"We believe he inappropriately touched and exposed himself to the victim," Deputy District Attorney Eric Jorgenson said Monday.

Johnson allegedly groped a 13-year-old girl several times and exposed himself to her in and outside of a classroom at Child Haven, a Clark County facility that houses neglected and abused children. The Clark County School District provides instructors to teach there, and Johnson was one of the instructors.

He was arrested in March 2001, but the case had remained in Justice Court for nearly two years while attorneys tried unsuccessfully to resolve it, Jorgenson said Monday. He would not comment further.

Jorgenson said he did not know if any other alleged victims had come forward since Johnson's arrest.

Johnson, a former Brigham Young University football player, was hired by the School District in 1993 despite being previously dismissed from a teaching job in Utah amid allegations that he had impregnated a high school senior, according to previous reports published in the Las Vegas Sun and elsewhere.

Neither Johnson nor his lawyer, Bill Terry, could be reached for comment.