District Man Indicted on Enhanced Second-Degree Theft for Retail Theft

            WASHINGTON – This week, Leon Johnson, 50, of Washington, D.C., was indicted by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on one count of felony second-degree theft stemming from events occurring on January 6, 2024, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Pamela Smith, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced.

            Johnson is to be arraigned on February 15, 2024, at a hearing before a Superior Court judge.

            According to the government’s evidence, on January 6, 2024, Johnson went into a CVS in Northwest Washington, D.C., took merchandise from the store shelves, and walked out of the store past all points of sale without paying. Johnson was arrested soon thereafter by the Metropolitan Police Department.   

            Johnson has two or more prior theft convictions, though not from the same occasion, and therefore is subject to enhanced penalties for his alleged theft, including a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail for the count of theft for which he is indicted.

            Since September 1, 2023, including the aforementioned case, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia has indicted 21 cases involving a felony second-degree theft charge based on a defendant’s two or more prior theft convictions, not from the same occasion.

            This case was investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. It was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Connor Mulvey.

            An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of criminal laws and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty. 

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