Mitchell Johnson, of Farmingville, convicted of sex trafficking woman he forced into prostitution

A Riverhead jury found a Farmingville man accused of using violence, deception and crack cocaine to force a woman into prostitution guilty of sex trafficking and other charges on Monday, Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement.

Mitchell Johnson, 38, faces up to 25 years in prison when he appears for sentencing before Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei in Riverhead on April 29.

"Today’s verdict is a decisive statement that this community will not tolerate the brutal exploitation of vulnerable people," Tierney said in the statement. "Mitchell Johnson used drugs, violence, and coercion to trap a woman in a nightmare of sex trafficking for his own profit."

The jury found Johnson guilty of three counts of sex trafficking and one count of second-degree promoting prostitution. His attorney, Chase Brown of Central Islip, said he was found not guilty of sex trafficking, two counts of criminal sexual acts, and second-degree strangulation.

"Mr. Johnson was facing a maximum exposure of 50 years in prison, but today’s verdict significantly decreased that exposure down to a maximum of 25 years," Brown said in a text message. "Mr. Johnson certainly respects the jury’s verdict but looks forward to the appeals process in order to clear his name once and for all."

Prosecutors said Johnson posed as a woman online to entice the 32-year-old victim, an addict who had been a sex worker in the past, to hang out at the Commack Motor Inn in March 2023.

When she arrived, Johnson supplied her with what she later told investigators felt like an "unlimited supply of crack cocaine," a drug she had previously stopped using, prosecutors said. Johnson persuaded the woman to engage in paid sexual acts, using her addiction to control her, Tierney said in the statement. Johnson kept her earnings and forbade her from leaving the motel room alone.

Prosecutors said the woman escaped from Johnson with the help of an armed customer who staged a kidnapping. The man rented a room for her at the Holiday Inn in Hauppauge on April 9, 2023, but Johnson tracked her down and brought her back to the Commack motel. He threatened to harm her and her family if she did not follow his orders.

When the woman refused to engage in paid sex acts, Johnson ordered his co-defendant to beat her. The May 5, 2023, assault led to 911 calls and the beginning of a police investigation, prosecutors said.