La Grande man convicted of sexually abusing 2 teen girls he met online gets 12 1/2 years in prison

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man who met two 15-year-old girls on Snapchat, sexually abused them while traveling through three states and finally abandoned them at a park has been sentenced to more than a decade behind bars, prosecutors said Thursday.

Albert Wayne Johnson was sentenced Wednesday to 12 1/2 years in federal prison and 10 years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon said Thursday in a statement.

On Aug. 8, 2022, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call reporting two minors abandoned in a park outside Portland in Boring, Oregon, according to court documents.

The girls told deputies they met Johnson on Snapchat and that he drove them from Washington through Idaho and into Oregon. Johnson sexually abused both of them at a motel in Othello, Washington, and one of them at a campground near La Grande, Oregon, according to court documents.

After arriving in Boring, Johnson left the children at a campsite in Barton Park and never returned.

Johnson, 42, was arrested at his home in La Grande on an outstanding parole violation warrant Aug. 30, 2022. Surveillance video from the motel in Othello showed him with the two girls, documents said.

That November a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment charging him with traveling across state lines to engage in a sexual act with a minor, transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and commission of a sex offense by a registered sex offender.

As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Johnson pleaded guilty this year to transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

In court filings Johnson’s attorney, Elizabeth Daily, said he did not use physical force or coercion against the girls and suggested that a sentence of just over 11 years would be sufficient.

Johnson was previously convicted of luring a minor and attempt to commit sexual abuse in 2018 and was under state supervision in August 2022, according to prosecutors. He had also violated his conditions of release by changing his address without approval and failing to complete sex offender and substance abuse treatment, they said.