Akeem Jelani Johnson Guilty of Raping Aussie Tourist and Dumping Her Behind Alley


A 28-year-old Tustin man who raped a drunken Australian tourist
in a car before dumping her in an alley behind Godfather's Bar was convicted Friday.

Akeem Jelani Johnson, 28, faces eight years in state prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender at his April 20 sentencing in Westminster.
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It was between 10 and 11 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2010–just after Thanksgiving–that Johnson met the 47-year-old woman at Godfather's. In town visiting friends, the woman was visibly drunk as Johnson escorted her outside to his parked SUV just after midnight. He raped her in the backseat before convincing a couple buddies to help him lift and carry her to the alley. She was passed out when she was dumped onto an old, dirty mattress.

A witness saw the woman being carried into the alley and the men fleeing afterward. A 9-1-1 call and license plate from the SUV were reported to cops. Authorities also released images from surveillance cameras inside Godfather's:



Johnson and one of his friends were later arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped against the second man. Johnson was found guilty by a jury Friday of one felony
count of rape of an intoxicated woman. A victim impact statement was read inside court:

My confident nature has taken a beating. I become anxious
around male strangers. I have trouble functioning without fear and
anxiety in unfamiliar surroundings and become nervous of anyone coming
too close to my personal space. . . . This whole ordeal has changed me for
life. I will never be the same person I was before Thanksgiving 2010. . . . Fortunately for me that night, something sent a Good Samaritan outside
from doing his laundry, and he had a conscience that told him what he
was witnessing was not right and he should do something about it.

If Johnson is ordered to register as a sex offender for life, he will be barred from city and county parks that have enacted safety zones forbidding sex offenders.

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