LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – A Kalamazoo man, who authorities call a “serial sex offender” has been sentenced recently to serve up to 22.5 years in prison for a series of sexual assaults he committed in Kalamazoo County between 2001 and 2014,
Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeffrey Getting and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel . made the announcement in the case of 39-year-old William Darnell Johnson of Kalamazoo Friday.
Johnson was charged with a series of sexual assaults on young women that started in 2001. The initial assault was reported immediately but the case was closed by police within a few weeks when the attacker could not be identified. However, in 2004, DNA evidence collected from the victim in the 2001 case matched the defendant’s DNA profile in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Despite this information, the victim was never notified and the investigation was not reopened.
In fall 2019, the victim of the 2001 assault learned of the Kalamazoo County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), which was established by the Michigan Department of Attorney General to re-investigate and prosecute sexual assaults related to previously untested sexual assault evidence kits. Her case was referred to the Kalamazoo County SAKI team.
Johnson was sentenced January 11 in the 9th Circuit Court by Judge Gary Giguere, Jr.
The Kalamazoo SAKI project, established in 2017, is funded by the Michigan Legislature and involves a partnership between the Attorney General’s office, the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office and the YWCA of Kalamazoo. The SAKI project uses the nationally recognized best practice “team approach” to the re-investigation and prosecution of cold-case sexual assaults. The team consists of a special assistant attorney general, deputized investigators employed by the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office, and a victim advocate/therapist employed by the YWCA of Kalamazoo.
After charging Johnson for the 2001 sexual assault, the Kalamazoo SAKI team identified three other women who had been sexually assaulted by Johnson in the years following the 2001 incident. One woman reported being repeatedly raped and physically assaulted in 2013 during the course of a dating relationship with Johnson.
Also in 2013, a second woman reported being violently raped by Johnson while she was sleeping on the couch of her sister’s home while he was living with her sister. The third woman reported that Johnson threatened and attempted to rape her during an argument while the two were dating in 2014.
In April 2020, after initial charges were filed against Johnson in the 2001 and 2013 incidents, he contacted the third woman (2014 victim) and attempted to persuade her to not testify in court in those cases or pursue her own charges.
Kalamazoo SAKI is currently prosecuting another case where the SAKI Investigator identified a dozen other women who had also been raped and/or physically assaulted by the same defendant. That defendant, Brad Risner, 28, of Coldwater, Michigan, is now facing trial in Calhoun and Jackson Counties for sexual assaults discovered during the Kalamazoo SAKI Investigation.
Risner is currently being held without bond in the Jackson County Jail.
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