Fiery crash into sheriff's office substation was deliberate, arrest report says Doctor convicted in fatal opioid overdose of woman

With 55 percent of her body covered in burns, the 34-year-old West Park woman spent nearly two months in the hospital before recovering enough to go to jail Friday morning.

The actions that landed her there were deliberate and retaliatory, fueled by distress over custody of her children who had been taken from her by law enforcement, an arrest report said.

Lasandra Johnson on March 19 crashed her car through the front window of a Broward Sheriff’s Office substation with an open can of gasoline on her passenger’s seat, the report said.

Engulfed in flames, her dress ablaze when she was removed from the car, Johnson aggressively rushed a deputy, declared her desire to die and hurled accusations, the sheriff ’s report said.

“Now you guys will listen,” she said. “You guys are not gonna hurt my family anymore … This is all your fault.”

Johnson’s arrest report did not indicate whether the sheriff’s office was involved with removing the children from her custody, although it did note that “law enforcement has been involved.”

The dramatic crash happened shortly before 11:30 a.m. on a Monday when multiple employees were in the district office at 3201 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. in West Park. The office suffered significant damage and could not be occupied after the fiery crash.

A worker painting the building helped Johnson get out of the wrecked Toyota Camry. When he opened the door “the interior of the vehicle flash fired and began to burn,” the report said.

“I brought her outside and ripped her dress off — it was engulfed in flames,” Ben Mendez said at the time. “I made her roll on the ground and put out all the flames.”

Johnson was taken to the burn unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami where she remained until Monday morning when she was booked into a Broward County jail in Pompano Beach. Her mug shot showed a large gauze bandage on her neck and fresh pink skin on her shoulder.

Johnson has a lengthy criminal history in Broward County. She has convictions dating back to 2003 for cocaine and marijuana possession, criminal mischief and misdemeanor battery.

In 2009 Johnson pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of child neglect but was not criminally convicted and a sentence was withheld, records show.

tealanez@sun-sentinel.com, 954-356-4542 or Twitter @talanez

FORT LAUDERDALE — A Treasure Coast doctor has been convicted in a woman’s fatal opioid overdose.

Court records show that Dr. Johnny Clyde Benjamin was found guilty in Fort Lauderdale federal court last week of several charges, including conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute furanylfentanyl, which resulted in death.

Benjamin had been working as an orthopedic surgeon in Vero Beach.

Authorities say a Wellington woman, Maggie Crowley, 34, died in September 2016 after overdosing on counterfeit oxycodone pills, which were actually furanylfentanyl.

An investigation determined that Benjamin was the source of the pills and that he was involved with the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit oxycodone pills outside the South Florida area.

Benjamin faces up to life in prison at a July 6 sentencing.