Accused child rapist from Philly sees his bail increased
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » A 20-yearold Philadelphia man held for trial last week on charges that he recorded himself sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and putting images on Instagram had his bail increased to 10% of $100,000 Monday.
Ibrahem Johnson, of the 800 block of South 56th Street, was held on felony charges of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault on a person less than 13 years old, filming sex acts with a child and dissemination of child pornography following a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Tammi L. Forbes August 11.
Detective Steven Bannar of the county’s Criminal Investigation Division was the sole person to testify at that hearing. He told Assistant District Attorney Kristen Kemp that he received a complaint from the girl’s mother in July 2020, who was made aware of the video by her two sons.
Bannar said the video had been posted to Instagram, but the account was deleted by the time he went to investigate it. Bannar said he was able to get other information linking Johnson to that account, however, including an email address.
The alleged victim also underwent a forensic interview in which she allegedly confirmed her age, said she was the person in the video, and indicated the video had been made in Colwyn, but did not reveal the name of the man in the video, Bannar said.
But Bannar said the girl’s father called him later and provided a name, “Ibrahem Johnson,” as well as an area in West Philadelphia where Johnson lived and told the detective Johnson had been arrested in the prior two weeks.
Bannar testified that he was able to develop Johnson as a suspect using that information and that he could tell it was Johnson in the video. The alleged victim also identified Johnson from a photo array, Bannar said.
Bannar also read transcripts of phone calls Johnson allegedly made while in prison indicating that he understood he could not use a defense that the girl had told him she was a different age, though Johnson also said in those conversations that that was not necessarily his case.
Defense attorney Thomas Clemens repeatedly objected to the evidence presented in court as hearsay and said several times that all the commonwealth had shown was a 14-second video of two people engaging in what he deemed “consensual sex.”
Clemens argued last week that there was no evidence his client was the person in the video, or that Johnson either shot or uploaded the video himself, or if the court even has jurisdiction to hear the case based on where it was uploaded.
Kemp countered that at this stage, hearsay testimony provided by the investigating detective is permitted to establish a prima facie case – meaning there is enough evidence to move to the Common Pleas Court – and that circumstantial evidence of Johnson’s involvement with shooting and uploading the video is enough at this point to hold him for trial.
Johnson has been in custody since turning himself in to police last August. Judge Forbes last week reduced his bail amount from 10% of $100,000 to 10% of $25,000 with other conditions, including a stay-away order from the victim and electronic home monitoring.
Kemp moved to increase bail Monday at a hearing before Common Pleas Court Judge George Pagano, noting Johnson has two other open cases pending in Philadelphia and twice allegedly said in phone calls from the prison that he “should have run.”
Clemens argued that Johnson should have nominal bail, noting he voluntarily surrendered himself to authorities and that his mother, who is suffering from health issues and will undergo surgery next month, needs him at home.
He said Johnson has been in custody for a year and that no evidence or witnesses were presented at the preliminary hearing last week, argued the girl’s mother used the video as leverage in a custody dispute and again referenced the sex in the video as “consensual.”
“The defendant had sex with a child,” said Kemp. “There is no consensual sex with a child, regardless of how it got reported to police. The defendant videoed himself having sex with a child and put it on Instagram.”
Pagano increased the bail on the recommendation of Kemp and Director of Pre-Trial/Bail Services Philip Pisani with an electronic home monitoring condition.
Johnson is set to be formally arraigned Sept. 8.