Greenfield man sentenced after pleading guilty to child molesting charges

HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. — A Greenfield man was sentenced for more than 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to child molestation-related charges.

According to a news release from the Hancock County Prosecutor’s Office, 71-year-old James Edward Johnson was sentenced to 21 years in prison after a sentencing earlier this month. After the prison sentence, Johnson will serve six years of sex offender-specific probation and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

“This was a particularly good outcome because the juvenile victim was able to receive closure to the case without having to relive the trauma they experienced, which would have been the case had the matter proceeded to trial,” Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton said in the release.

The release said that the incident was reported in May 2023 when a child’s father contacted the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, telling them he believed his child had been a victim of sexual abuse. During an interview, the 12-year-old child provided details of physical sexual abuse as well as explicit text messages Johnson would send the child.

“The collaboration between Zoey’s Place, the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, and the Prosecutor’s Office was instrumental in bringing this case to a successful conclusion, demonstrating the validity to our multidisciplinary team approach to child abuse,” Eaton continued in the release. “My office is proud to support these innocent victims and will continue to work hard alongside our partner agencies to obtain justice for Hancock County families.”

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