Porter fraudster Donald Johnson to remain in jail without bond as he continues to seek an attorney

Chicago Tribune

11-04-2025

Donald M. Johnson will remain in the Porter County Jail without bond for another six months after a Friday hearing in which he told the court that he still hasn't been able to find another attorney and the additional time will allow him to do just that.
Johnson has cycled through attorneys at an almost dizzying pace — his last attorney stepped away in December — postponing time and again various elements of his most recent criminal case and, at least from the perspective of Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer and Special Prosecutor David Rooda, postponing payment of the hundreds of thousands of dollars to he owes to the victims of his securities fraud from his original case, which stretches back more than a decade.
Clymer swore Johnson in from the jail for questioning about his ability to hire and pay for an attorney. He told the judge that his inability to hire an attorney was 'beyond my control' because he couldn't get a lawyer to call him back while he was in jail.
'Mr. Johnson had three months to hire an attorney and hasn't done so,' Rooda said, adding that it fits 'a pattern of conduct of Mr. Johnson intentionally delaying' the case moving forward.
Johnson, 60, of Porter, has been held without bond in the Porter County Jail since late October after a late restitution payment, among other allegations, jeopardized his probation status. He also racked up a fresh criminal charge, a Level 6 felony count of obstruction of justice, during his Oct. 24 arrest at his parents' rural Porter County home.
Johnson is on probation for four years after pleading guilty more than a year ago to a single count of securities fraud in a case that has stretched for a decade and involves multiple victims. Under the terms of the plea agreement reluctantly accepted by Clymer in January 2024, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of broker-dealer registration violation, a Class C felony.
The additional 14 counts against him were dismissed as part of the plea and he was sentenced to four years of probation and to pay $604,500 in restitution, the total owed to all of his victims. He has paid $58,031 of that so far, according to online court records.
Johnson, Clymer said, has admitted in court that he was late with a restitution payment in October. The other matters to be resolved include the obstruction of justice charge and the other ways in which he reportedly violated the terms of his probation, including not reporting income from a job at a restaurant and bar; that in itself was a violation because he is not supposed to be at establishments that serve alcohol, much less work at them.
Rooda, reminding Johnson he was under oath, asked Johnson if he had asked his family to hold off on hiring an attorney for him.
'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson said, referring to the Fifth Amendment right to be free of self-incrimination. When asked to speak up from the jail, he said, 'I choose not to answer that question.'
Rooda asked Johnson if he had been in contact with an attorney who was willing to represent him, but whom he wouldn't hire.
'I plead the Fifth,' Johnson repeated before agreeing with Rooda that his family had the funds to hire a defense attorney.
Johnson has continued to push Clymer's patience to the stretching point and Friday's hearing was no exception. He said he wouldn't have agreed to the plea agreement, 'which seems like a long time ago,' if it didn't include restitution to Johnson's victims.
'I would not have accepted the sentence if the admitted victims were not going to be made whole,' Clymer said, adding one victim is owed 'almost a quarter of a million dollars,' and another is out $100,000.
'They're entitled to be paid back,' Clymer said.
He demanded to know how long it would be until Johnson got an attorney and Johnson said six months. If he hires an attorney in the meantime, Clymer said, the court will give the state notice and the hearing, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 23, can be held sooner.
'The delay is charged to Mr. Johnson,' Clymer said. 'The court finds he is not attempting to find counsel.'
The fastest way for Johnson to get out of jail, Clymer said, is to provide the remaining $550,000 to pay his victims back.
'Five witnesses are prepared to testify and this is the second time we've done this,' Clymer said. 'You can tell the court is not pleased.'
The securities fraud allegations against Johnson include multiple victims who, according to charging documents, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate investments gone bad when they did not get the returns they were promised and couldn't get back the money they put into the deals.
Charges against Johnson were filed in March 2014. He was initially charged with 14 counts related to securities fraud, Class C felonies at the time. Two months later, he was charged with one count of forgery, also a Class C felony, and two counts of theft, Class D felonies, in a related case.
An appellate court ruling trimmed that to 15 counts after determining that the statute of limitations had run out for one of the victim's claims, but the rest of the charges could stand.