Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
COLFAX - A registered sex offender faces felony charges for sending sexual text messages to a Moscow teenager while staying in LaCrosse.
Austin T. Johnson, 23, of Moscow, Idaho, is charged with two counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes in Whitman County Superior Court on Feb. 17.
In the late summer of 2020, a woman contacted the Moscow police about finding sexual texts on her daughter's phone. The messages were allegedly between Johnson and a teenage girl in Moscow, Idaho discussing sex, according to court records.
A search warrant revealed Johnson appeared to have taken part while staying in LaCrosse, which is why the charges are filed in Whitman County.
Johnson is a registered sex offender in Idaho for a 2013 juvenile conviction for lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16 years old, according to the Moscow police. When he turned 20 he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender. In 2017 he was arrested for two counts of lewd conduct with a 16-year-old girl by the Clearwater County Sheriff's Office in Idaho.
Bill Stevenson is the former editor of the Whitman County Gazette, Colfax Daily Bulletin and Franklin Connection. He has nearly 30 years of journalism experience covering news in Eastern Washington.
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