SANFORD, Fla. – A Sanford man faces child porn and video voyeurism charges after authorities located at least 10 videos taken from inside his home, according to an arrest report.
Justin Dwanye Johnson Sr. was located and arrested Wednesday in Orlando, according to the Sanford Police Department.
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An investigation into Johnson, who had been a foster parent with about 20 children placed in his care since 2019, was launched Jan. 28 when Child Protective Services alerted law enforcement to a possible case of child pornography, Sanford Police Chief Cecil Smith said at a news conference.
On that same day, the five foster children who were currently under his care were removed from his custody and placed back into the system, without any additional contact with Johnson, police said.
“The preliminary data received has uncovered thousands upon thousands of images and videos containing child pornography and sexual abuse of multiple children,” Smith said. “The photographic evidence appears to have been created over a number of years with a multitude of victims vary in age.”
According to an arrest report, authorities located videos set up in a bedroom that captured in three separate instances where girls were changing into clothes.
The report documented that so far, there have been 10 child pornography videos extracted from the 47-year-old’s phone where at least one video was confirmed to have taken place in his home. Police said girls in these videos were between the ages of infancy to 16 years old.
#mediarelease #breaking There will be a presser at 3:00pm in the Community Room of the Public Safety Complex regarding the arrest of Justin Dwayne Johnson Sr for Child Pornography and Video Voyeurism. pic.twitter.com/jBeo73ZhrI
— SanfordPolice (@SanfordPolice) February 24, 2022
The incidents documented in the photos and videos, which include children under 16 years old and adults, date back as far as 2011, according to Smith.
“It is just a horrific idea, or just horrific to think, that someone so disgusting was among all of our people here in our community and with the assistance of an informant who felt that it was important to share that information with us, we have had the opportunity to remove this individual from our streets,” Smith said.
Smith also said Johnson’s two adult sons were believed to have been living with him at the time, but no additional charges are pending against any other individual at this time.
“We don’t know how far this is going to go. We’re still doing our best right now in the preliminary phase of this with just trying to get an idea of who the people are,” Smith said. “It‘s been 10-plus years, where this individual has been actively engaged in stuff that we were not aware of, that was brought to our attention again by the informant.”
David Thomas, the lead detective on the case, said they have only scratched the surface of the investigation, having retrieved only about 10% of devices from Johnson, and are urging anyone who had contact with Johnson to come forward so they can identify other potential victims.
“Again, these videos, we’re thinking it could be family members, it could be friends, it could be strangers, you know,” Thomas said. “We don’t know exactly who... are these victims. But anybody who has had any contact with him, that’s who we’re asking to come forward.”
Police could not comment on any red flags that may have popped up on a Department of Children and Families background check for Johnson. Though investigators do say they believe there is a “good possibility” that the foster children under Johnson’s care were among the victims.
“Our goal right now is to identify any potential victims that are out there with the large number of cameras that were placed in every room, including the bathrooms. Anyone to enter that house could have been a victim of some type of voyeurism or may have been recorded or videotaped,” Smith said. “It is just completely disgusting.”
Johnson faces at least three counts of sexual offenses and video voyeurism with a child less than 16 and two additional charges of possession of obscene materials, with potential additional charges pending as the investigation continues.