Criminal case against Glastonbury man in bad crash goes away

Alex Wood, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·4 min read

May 25—The criminal case against a Glastonbury man who went drinking with two friends on Christmas night 2019, then was in a car crash on Hebron Avenue in which all three of them suffered serious injuries, has ended without a conviction.

CASE ENDS

DEFENDANT: Aaron William Johnson, now 21, who has listed an address on Cedar Ridge Terrace in Glastonbury.

ORIGINAL CHARGES: Included two counts of second-degree assault with a motor vehicle, drunken driving, reckless driving, and two counts of first-degree forgery relating to fake driver's licenses.

OUTCOME: Online judicial records show no pending case or conviction for Johnson, probably due to successful completion of one or more pretrial diversion programs.

Aaron William Johnson, now 21, who has listed an address on Cedar Ridge Terrace, originally faced charges that included two felony counts of second-degree assault with a motor vehicle in the crash, which was reported to police at 1:33 a.m. on Dec. 26, 2019, at 3108 Hebron Ave. in eastern Glastonbury.

An automated notification system reported the conclusion of the criminal case against Johnson late last week.

A check with the court clerk's office Monday revealed that there was no public record of the case. That is consistent with the case having been dismissed as a result of successful completion of one or more pretrial diversion programs by Johnson — and not consistent with the case having been dropped or dismissed for other reasons.

Blood tests performed on Johnson after the crash showed a blood-alcohol level of 0.07 percent, according to an affidavit by Glastonbury police Officer Sue-Ellen Jobes.

That is below the 0.08 percent threshold for drunken driving by a person age 21 or older, but well above the legal limit of 0.02 percent for a person younger than 21.

Because Johnson was 18 at the time of the crash, he was charged with drunken driving.

Johnson was also facing two felony counts of first-degree forgery.

One forgery count stemmed from the discovery of a fake driver's license for Johnson in the crashed car, with a birth date indicating that he was 21 rather than 18, the officer reported.

The other forgery count stemmed from another counterfeit license found when he was arrested on the charges relating to the crash on the evening of March 3, 2020, in a parking lot at 141 Hebron Ave., police said.

Johnson is still facing a civil lawsuit filed by Jordan Torres, now 21, of Newington, who was one of his passengers at the time of the crash.

Torres suffered two spinal fractures — to his neck and to a wing-like structure on the side of a lower-back vertebra — as well as an injury to an artery in the fractured neck vertebra and cuts to his spleen and ear lobe, according to Jobes' affidavit.

Some of Torres' injuries "will be permanent in nature and/or permanently disabling," and he will continue to suffer "pain, discomfort, emotional upset, limitation of motion, and restriction of activity," according to his civil lawsuit, filed by lawyer Christopher C. Cramer of Trantolo & Trantolo.

The lawsuit also names as defendants various people associated with the Brickhouse Bar and Grill on Market Square in Newington, where the suit states Johnson was drinking before the crash.

Johnson's other passenger, Joseph Taber, now 22, suffered a collapsed left lung, the officer reported.

Both passengers were taken to Hartford Hospital by ambulance.

Johnson, by contrast, was taken to the same hospital by Life Star helicopter. His medical records showed cuts to his liver, spleen, and right kidney, bruises to his right lung, and a fracture to the wing-like structure on the side of a lower-back vertebra, the officer reported. He told the officer he wasn't wearing a seat belt.

On the night of the accident, Johnson was driving east on Hebron Avenue in a 22-year-old European sports sedan when he lost control on a curve, crossed the road, and hit a utility pole, splitting the pole and causing a power outage, the officer reported.

For updates on Glastonbury, and recent crime and courts coverage in North-Central Connecticut, follow Alex Wood on Twitter: @AlexWoodJI1, Facebook: Alex Wood, and Instagram: @AlexWoodJI.