Charges filed against an Edinburgh man accused of concealing a valuable metal purchase were dismissed by a county judge last month.
Following a motion filed by prosecutors, Johnson County Superior Court 3 judge Douglas Cummins dismissed nine counts of the Level 6 felony filed against Glen David Johnson Jr., 36, on Nov. 21. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office could refile charges at a later date if prosecutors desired.
In April, Johnson was one of five people charged in connection to the illegal purchases of catalytic converters following a joint investigation between the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Edinburgh Police Department and the prosecutor’s office. Three of the other four people charged have cases pending, while the other person pled guilty and was sentenced last month.
While Johnson was investigated as part of the sting operation, the charges filed against him were based solely on documentation of his prior transactions with the buying facilities involved. Johnson allegedly sold an ‘overwhelmingly greater’ amount of converters than he could properly document, but there was not enough direct evidence showing the sales involved stolen converters, said Joe Villanueva, Johnson County prosecutor.
“While that provides a strong inference that the source of those converters was illegal in nature, in the end, we were unable to provide any direct evidence demonstrating those particular sales involved stolen converters,” Villanueva said. “The lack of documentation which gives rise to the offense is, unfortunately, the same kind of documentation which would be needed to successfully prosecute the same offense.”
A situation like this is not expected to happen again as state lawmakers have tightened the restrictions on the sales of converters since the investigations took place, he said.
