No trial after wife refused to cooperate

By Ray Huard
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 19, 2008

A San Diego man accused of shocking his wife 150 times with a stun gun
received no prison time because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that left
prosecutors unable to go to trial after the man's wife refused to cooperate.

 "Without her, there was very little we could proceed on," Deputy District
Attorney Claudia Grasso said.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, Cal C. Johnson was sentenced in El
Cajon Superior Court yesterday to three years' probation. Prosecutors said
it was the best they could do under court rules that have dramatically
shifted under Supreme Court rulings that began in 2004 and continued through
last month.

Johnson, 48, pleaded guilty June 19 to felony charges of corporal injury to
a spouse and making a criminal threat. He had been charged with 17
felonies - accused of kidnapping, beating and threatening his wife over four
days before attacking her with the stun gun on May 23, 2007.

Had Johnson been tried and convicted of all counts, he would have faced more
than 20 years in prison, Grasso said.
Johnson's wife told police that her husband took her to Jamul under the
guise of meeting with a man Johnson suspected she was seeing. She said
Johnson pulled off the road along Proctor Valley Road in Jamul and shocked
her repeatedly for an hour with a stun gun.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that statements made to police and others
out of court - such as those Johnson's wife made - couldn't be used unless
the person who made them also testified in court, giving defendants a chance
to confront their accusers and challenge their credibility.

Until the 2004 ruling, prosecutors routinely went to court on domestic
violence cases in which victims wouldn't testify, former San Diego City
Attorney Casey Gwinn said. He said victims refused to cooperate in about 75
percent of the cases.

Gwinn is a founder of the San Diego Family Justice Center and an instructor
at the National College of District Attorneys.

Prosecutors would rely on physical evidence such as police reports and
medical reports on victim's injuries, Gwinn said.

Johnson's wife was in court for his arraignment in May 2007, Grasso said.
After that, prosecutors were unable to find her even though they staked out
her house and went to her son's high school graduation.

"We logged over 100 hours trying to subpoena the victim. We were never able
to find her," Grasso said.

Johnson's attorney, Kevin McDermott, said he never knew where Johnson's wife
was staying but that she never left San Diego County. McDermott said
Johnson, his wife and two teenage children are undergoing counseling in
hopes of getting the family back together.

McDermott denied that Johnson shocked his wife and said his client pleaded
guilty to avoid prosecution on domestic-violence charges should his wife
change her mind about testifying against him.

He said that Johnson and his wife were using methamphetamine at the time of
the incident and that her report to police was affected by her drug use.

"It wouldn't be the first time in a domestic-violence situation where the
spouse, for whatever reason, grossly overstates the circumstances,"
McDermott said.