Michael Johnson sentenced to 22 years for sex trafficking women at Long Island hotels and motels

A Delaware man convicted of sex trafficking two women at the Sayville Motor Lodge — one of whom had an arm amputated after years of intravenous drug use while being forced to have sex for money — was sentenced to 22 years in prison Wednesday.

Michael Johnson, 36, who lived in Selbyville, Delaware, but who is originally from Wyandanch, was found guilty last year of sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking and interstate prostitution — stemming from an investigation that resulted in the closure of the Sayville Motor Lodge.

"Sex trafficking, it's not a petty crime," said U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert, from the bench in Central Islip Wednesday, adding that trial evidence against Johnson had revealed "real violence ... making people feel less than human."

The judge, who also sentenced Johnson to 5 years of post-release supervision, added just before handing down the sentence: "The cruelty that this court witnessed through the trial, the court can't discount that."

In a letter written by one of Johnson’s victims, identified as Dawn and read in open court by the judge, the woman wrote that she had lost her right arm due to an untreated infection from intravenous drug use that Johnson had forced on her.

"This man didn't just break me mentally, he quite frankly, broke me physically," Dawn said.

"My self-esteem has been systematically dismantled by this man," said Dawn, who was in the courtroom briefly with a small dog wearing a service dog vest, but appeared emotional and left.

Both she and another woman, identified only as Danielle, a sister of one of the victims, asked the judge to give Johnson the maximum sentence possible.

Johnson is a "calculated predator," Danielle told the court through tears. Johnson treated her sister "without empathy, without regard for human dignity," Danielle said.

Her sister, she said, has started to rebuild her life. "Despite everything he did, he did not win," Danielle said.

Johnson, a married father of two daughters, was indicted in connection with being a pimp at the Sayville Motor Lodge. At his trial last year, he was described by the prosecution and its witnesses as a drug-dealing, violent pimp who carried a gun and didn’t hesitate to use violence, including rape, to force compliance. He arranged for the women to stay in rooms at the motel, where he scheduled dates with men who paid for sex with them, according to trial testimony. He kept the proceeds for himself, prosecutors said.

Johnson’s defense conceded he sold drugs to prostitutes and cheated on his wife, but denied that he sex trafficked anyone.

"Today’s sentence reflects the profound harm caused by sex trafficking — a crime that strips victims of their autonomy, dignity, and safety," U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement Wednesday. "Michael Johnson and his co-conspirators preyed on vulnerable women and treated them as commodities for profit."

The charges Johnson faced at trial related to three women, two of whom testified along with two other Suffolk County women who said Johnson also sold them for sex at Suffolk hotels and motels.

The jury convicted Johnson of charges that related to two women, but acquitted him of the trafficking charge related to a woman identified as Kristina in the indictment.

The prosecution, led by Catherine Mirabile, chief of the Long Island Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, sought a sentence of 30 years to life in prison, saying Wednesday that Johnson had committed crimes of "exploitation and control" that included "sustained abuse carried out for financial gain."

Johnson didn’t express any remorse for his conduct, but attempted to cast himself as merely a drug dealer and had alleged that his victims were "misremembering," Mirabile said.

Johnson's attorney, Gary Kaufman, of Manhattan, said in court Wednesday that his client is "smart" and has a "really strong work ethic." He had been a "star football player" in high school, but his world crumbled at age 16, when his mother "moved to Delaware to be with a man."

"That literally put him in survival mode," Kaufman said.

The lesson that Johnson learned, said his lawyer, is that "love and kindness isn't real. People are disposable. It's a cynical world view and I think he is trying to unlearn it."

"You can see how someone who was abandoned by his mother on the street can come to view human relationships as transactional," said Kaufman, who asked that his client be sentenced to 15 years in prison. "His kids will be grown when he gets out."

While the judge called his life circumstances "heartbreaking," she rejected the lighter sentence advocated by his attorney.

Of the possibility of Johnson leaving prison and getting on the right track, the judge said: "I just don't see that happening."

But the judge called the prosecution's ask for 30 years in prison "way over the top."

Johnson's wife, Allison Johnson, who attended her husband's sentencing with their two daughters — ages 7 and 12 — said she's been clean from a heroin addiction for 11 years and dismissed the victims' stories.

"Nobody was forced to do anything," she said.

Islip Town officials closed the motel following a federal raid in November 2022. The property was sold for $2 million as part of the federal case in October 2023 and is slated for redevelopment by an unrelated company, according to court records.

Narendarakuma Dadarwala, 78, and Shardaben Dadarwala, 71, pleaded guilty of sex trafficking conspiracy along with former manager Ashokbhai Patel, 61. The couple's son, Jigar Dadarwala, 47, who lived at the motel, and alleged trafficker Timothy Bullen, 38, of Bay Shore, also were charged in the indictment and have not yet gone to trial. Bullen was described as the main pimp operating out of the motel during Johnson’s trial.

Johnson, before being led away by U.S. marshals, addressed his wife and family.

"No more crying in the courtroom," he said sternly.