Former anti-drug activist arrested on felony drug charges again
Topeka ? A man who had worked as an anti-drug activist has been arrested a second time on drug charges and also faces other charges that include kidnapping and attempted aggravated robbery.
Darryln Johnson, who formerly worked with Kansas Action for Children as the outreach coordinator of the Kansas Children’s Campaign, was arrested Monday at his home.
A warrant was issued earlier in the day charging Johnson, 43, with kidnapping, attempted aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, making criminal threats, possession with intent to sell opiates/narcotics and arranging the sale or purchase of drugs using a communication device.
Each count is a felony.
Court documents allege that on May 25, Johnson and another man took a 46-year-old woman from an apartment.
The woman was forced to accompany the two men to another location and withdraw money from an ATM, said Lt. John Sidwell, police spokesman. He said the woman was kidnapped because of an unpaid drug debt.
When officers went to Johnson’s home to arrest him, Sidwell said, Johnson first ran to the back of his home and then had to be subdued with a Tazer, a device that uses an electrical current to temporarily immobilize a suspect.
An arrest warrant has been issued for the second man suspected in the kidnapping.
Johnson also was arrested in May in connection with an unrelated case, in which he allegedly sold 8.5 grams of crack cocaine to an informant working with Topeka police.
In that case, he is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing September 3 in connection with charges of possession with the intent to sell opiates/narcotics, drug dealer’s failure to pay the Kansas drug tax stamp and arranging the sale or purchase of drugs using a communication device.
In June, leaders at Kansas Action for Children told The Topeka Capital-Journal that they were investigating Johnson. Gary Brunk, the organization’s executive director, said Tuesday that Johnson had been fired that same month. He said that reasons for firing Johnson, who had worked there about a year-and-a-half, were confidential.