Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Sex Offender Named 'Buddy' Lured Two Teen Girls on Snapchat for Sex

Episode Date: May 25, 2024

Albert "Buddy" Wayne Johnson is going to federal prison after meeting two 15-year-old girls on Snapchat and forcing them to have sex with him. Johnson met up with the girls in Washington state and then took them across state lines through Idaho and Oregon. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy details how law enforcement found the girls and caught up with Johnson in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A man in Oregon learns his punishment after taking two girls across state lines for sex after luring them on social media. The disturbing case out of Oregon and how much time he's getting straight ahead. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Albert buddy Wayne Johnson is in some big, big trouble with the feds. He's going to prison. Back in the summer of 2022, the FBI says Johnson had sex with two teenage girls after taking them from Seattle, Washington, and then taking them across Idaho state lines and into Oregon. The FBI got involved in the case in

August of 2022 after the two teenage girls who were runaways from the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services were found in Barton Park in Boring, Oregon at a campsite registered to Johnson. An affidavit says the girls initially lied about their identities because they were afraid since they had run away. The girls, identified only as Minor Victim 1 and Minor Victim 2, said they met a man on Snapchat. That's how they hooked up with Johnson. The affidavit says Johnson drove them to a hotel in Othello, Washington.

At the hotel, Johnson had intercourse with MV1 and MV2, did not wear a condom, and ejaculated inside both. MV1 and MV2 said they did not voluntarily engage in intercourse, but believed Johnson would drop them off somewhere random on the road if they did not engage. The affidavit continues and says Johnson drove the girls to a campsite in La Grande, Oregon, and had sex with them again in a tent. The girls were both 15 at the time and said they told Johnson that, so he was well aware that they were minors. The affidavit includes photos from surveillance cameras, one from August 5th of 2022. It includes a shot of those girls outside of Equality Inn in Othello, Washington. This is where the girls told detectives they had sex with Jackson against their will. There's also

a receipt from a travel plaza showing sandwiches purchased for three people, along with an image of Johnson buying the food. And there's a screen grab from a surveillance camera at a Walmart from August 5th. I'll tell you why that's important in a little bit. I want to bring in somebody who knows a lot about investigating sex crimes, human trafficking, things involving children, especially with the internet. She is Detective Mary Braun with the Cincinnati Police Department. Mary, I know you weren't involved in this case, but you've investigated a lot of cases over the years. Your first thoughts on this case involving this guy, Buddy Johnson, who lures these two 15-year-old girls for sex over Snapchat in their runaways. They were easy prey.

Absolutely. And kids are on social media a lot. You don't know who they're really talking to, and they don't know who they're really talking to. I don't know what the chats were like, but he could very possibly have been trying to pretend to be someone their own age. So I just, you never know who's on the other end of a phone or a computer, any kind of chat room like that.

What bothers me so much about this, and I mentioned that earlier, is the fact that these girls were 15 years old. They're runaways. And this guy goes across state lines. He goes into Washington. He takes them from Washington to Idaho, to Oregon, and then takes them to a hotel. I mean, there's evidence there that they included in the complaint. We have photographs of him entering the hotel. I mean, there's evidence there that they included in the complaint. We have photographs of him entering the hotel with them. And he's having unprotected sex with these girls. Not only, I mean, he's raping children, but he's doing it across state lines. He's not wearing protection. And it's just so, the ick factor in this is so high on so many levels.

It sure is. And with things like this, I feel like, you know, when you have someone, kids who are running away, I like to try to think, okay, what are they running from or what are they running to? And if they're running to, you know, a guy like this, and then a lot of kids, they get into a situation where they don't know how to get out of it. And it's a lot. And if you think for 15-year-olds, who knows what he said was really going to happen. But then once they're in that situation, and they don't know what to do, they don't have the capacity to think past the consequences of talking to somebody online. They were already in the custody of Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. So they're already in a situation that probably wasn't great.

They obviously didn't have good home lives if they're in the custody of the state. And then they get hooked up with this guy. And you're right. We don't know what he said to them on Snapchat to get them to meet up with him. But, you know, I can see they get into this situation. Who knows what he promised them? And they said it was against their will. They didn't consent to this sexual activity. And they probably just freeze. That's how I imagine this, that these girls just freeze up. They're teenage girls. They don't have the mental capacity or the wherewithal to kind of fight back against this.

Yeah, they probably, they just didn't know what to do. And the thought of running, perhaps they couldn't run, the thought of running in an area where they don't know where they are, that was probably very scary. The whole thing, I'm sure, was very scary. And you're right, they're 15 years old. Sex is not something that the mind at that point, you can think of to consent. So I'm sure it was terrifying for them. And they had this guy dead to rights. I mean, they track him down eventually. Thank goodness these sheriff's deputies find these girls at this campsite that was registered to him. So there's clue number one, right? And they're scared. And a sheriff's deputy overhears them, according to

the affidavit, saying, we should just tell, you know, and they're trying to, like, figure out what they should do. So they're confused. They're scared. They finally tell the sheriff's deputies, the Clackamas County sheriff's deputies, what has happened. Then they go looking for this work, a trash bag containing things that he had purchased at Walmart, including hair dye. And they find this with a quality in hotel key, which I thought was, you know, it's just pieces of the puzzle. You know, he's leaving breadcrumbs. So they have this guy and he gets sentenced. He's guilty of the crimes

and he's going to prison for 12 years. So were you impressed with that as far as them finding that evidence in his storage unit in that trash bag? Well, first I want to say I'm very proud of the girls for speaking up and telling what actually happened to them. Unfortunately, like with the sex trafficking investigations, sometimes it's hard to get that rapport and for the victims to actually say what has happened. So I'm very proud that they were able to tell their story like that. And of course, to have detectives and officers who are going to go every step and follow every little piece of that, it sounds like

it was a big puzzle piece, but they found all the pieces and put it together for a good outcome for the victims and for law enforcement. He'll be doing time for 12 years in federal prison. A lot of times you get good credit. You usually do about 85% of that. But that's going to be a long time um but how concerned are you that somebody like this gets out after that amount of time and re-offends well right there's always a possibility of that but the thing is is that now he'll be a registered sex offender which i believe he already was but he will be a registered sex offender. So not that that stops him from doing something else, but it does up the penalties if unfortunately something like that

happens. But hopefully the post-release control, they will keep an eye on him very well and he won't be able to re-offend. As far as these kids, though, being on these social media apps, I mean, they were in, these kids were in the custody of the state and met somebody on Snapchat. So I know that in doing these stories, covering these stories, you have to always keep an eye on what your kids are doing. But these kids were in the custody of the state. So it seems to me, possibly, they had already run away. We don't know how long they had run away for before this whole Snapchat thing took place. But we do know that he met them on Snapchat. So you really have to always know what these kids are doing

online and on their phones. You do. And I always tell, when I do presentations, I always tell parents, and I tell the kids too, that if you're living in the house and you're 18 you don't get privacy so parents really need to know what's on the kids phone know the passcode to the phone keep an open communication you know with the kids so if something scary happens that they'll be able to talk to you and just to let you know that something bad's going on. You know, I don't know how the girls got the phones being, you know, not at home, but again, it's people just have to watch and know what your kids are doing. And kids need to understand that people lie online all the time.

Adults need to understand that too with all the scams that are out there, but especially it's dangerous for the kids. So parents need to just keep an open line of communication so that they can talk about, who are they talking to online? Who are they playing games with? Do they know them in person?

Those are all things that hopefully parents can have a conversation with their kids about. Yeah. And I just think the kids need to be empowered to just run and get away when they know something is not right. And thank goodness those girls finally kind of told what had been going on. It's just horrible. They had been violated more than once by this guy. Detective Mary Braun, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.