Man pimps his stepdaughter -- after molesting her

By Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A man who molested his stepdaughter and then prostituted her at his home has been sentenced to life in prison by a Fulton County judge.

FBI James Howard Johnson was convicted on 17 felony counts ranging from rape, to child molestation to pimping and pandering, according to the office of Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.

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A jury convicted James Howard Johnson, 49, Monday evening on 17 felony counts ranging from rape, to child molestation, to pimping and pandering, according to the office of Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.

Judge Craig Schwall sentenced Johnson on Monday to three consecutive life terms in prison plus 87 years.

Johnson started sexually abusing his stepdaughter in 2000 when she was 7, said Yvette Brown, a Howard spokeswoman. The abuse escalated when she reached her teens, and he prostituted her at "sex parties" at their Atlanta home, Brown said. He forced her to drink alcohol, take the drug ecstasy and then have sex with men for money.

"Johnson also demanded the victim recruit her friends to the ‘sex parties’ and solicit men via chat lines," Brown said, adding that his ex-wife -- the girl's mother -- and his girlfriend both testified that he also prostituted them. Johnson was not convicted of prostituting the four other girls, but he was convicted of enticing them for indecent purposes and of giving them alcohol.

The main victim in the case ran away from home to Missouri in 2007 and told an aunt what had happened. Atlanta police investigated, and Johnson was arrested in 2008.

The girl, whose name is being withheld by the AJC because she is a victim of a sex crime, was given counseling by the Missouri Department of Social Services, according to Dalia Racine, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case.

The victim, now 18, graduated with honors from high school, according to Racine, and is attending a private university on a scholarship.

Brown said the men who attended the sex parties were "unknown to the state" and that investigators were following up on leads involving them for possible further prosecution.