The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
No bail for man accused of child rape
Abram Johnson is awaiting sentencing
NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County prosecutors have won their bid to keep a former Worcester man behind bars while he waits for a re-sentencing hearing on charges he sexually assaulted an underage girl on multiple occasions while she was in his company.
Senior Judge Stephen B. Lieberman on Monday granted a prosecutor’s request to revoke bail for Abram Cornell Johnson, 36, writ
ing in a court order, “The defendant remains incarcerated pending sentencing.”
Lieberman, a visiting judge from Berks County, issued the ruling after a brief hearing on Monday.
Assistant District Attorney Brianna Ringwood argued that Johnson’s bail should be revoked because of “the increased and significant likelihood that the defendant will flee.”
Johnson, formerly of North Wales Road, faces a re-sentencing hearing on Oct. 16 before Senior Judge Scott D. Keller.
In August 2018, Johnson pleaded guilty to charges of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a child and sexual assault in connection with incidents that occurred between 1998 and 2016 when the victim was between the ages of 4 and 22 and in Johnson’s company at various locations in Philadelphia and Montgomery County, including Plymouth, Elkins Park, and Whitemarsh.
Johnson knew the girl’s family, according to testimony.
In April, Johnson was sentenced to 10-to-20years in state prison on the charges. That sentence was imposed by Judge Leonard N. Zito, a senior judge from Northampton County. An out-of-county judge was assigned to preside over the case because Johnson is known by a member of the Montgomery County bench.
Johnson, who is represented by defense lawyer Thomas C. Egan III, appealed the sentence, challenging the imposition of the 10-year mandatory minimum term on the charge of rape of a child. Egan argued that the 10-year mandatory sentence was not applicable in the case and that only a 5-year mandatory sentence should have been considered.
In August Keller, a senior judge from Berks County, agreed with the defense and vacated Johnson’s original sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing.
The victim, now 24, confronted Johnson in court during the trial and explained that the sexual assaults led her to be suicidal at a young age and untrusting of adults.
An investigation began in December 2016, when a woman reported to the Plymouth Township Police Department that she had been sexually assaulted by Johnson over the course of several years at various times while she was in his company.
The woman told detectives that at the age of 4 she resided in Philadelphia and that Johnson, who knew her family, sexually assaulted her and raped her on at least one occasion while he was at her home, according to the criminal complaint filed by Plymouth Detective Joseph LaPenta III.
The victim reported that between the ages of 6 and 14 she resided at another Philadelphia residence and that Johnson sexually assaulted her “over a hundred times” when he visited that residence during those years, court papers indicate.
The victim told detectives that when she was between the ages of 14 and 16 her family lived in Elkins Park and she said Johnson “would figure out when no one would be home” and visit her. The victim claimed Johnson also occasionally took her to his Blue Bell residence at that time and sexually assaulted her there, according to the arrest affidavit.
Other sexual assaults occurred while the victim was living at a Plymouth residence when she was between 16- and 18-years of age and later at her Whitemarsh residence, detectives alleged.