Fast food manager charged with sexually assaulting underage girls he worked with at Culver's, Freddy's
GREEN BAY – A 37-year-old fast food restaurant manager is charged with nine felonies, accused of sex crimes against underage girls he worked with at Freddy's and Culver's in the Green Bay area.
Joshua Johnson of De Pere was fired from his job as a manager at Culver's in Suamico in November after a 15-year-old girl reported he was making unwanted sexual advances, included kissing and touching, toward her at work. Although that incident was reported to the Brown County Sheriff's Office and Johnson was allegedly banned from all Culver's locations, Johnson was hired as a supervisor at the newly opened Freddy's in Bellevue, where he is accused of meeting two more 15-year-old girls and sexually assaulted them in July.
Johnson was arrested by De Pere police in August after two 15-year-old employees of Freddy's, located at 2415 Costco Way in Bellevue, reported incidents of Johnson engaging in sexual contact with them.
Johnson made an adjourned initial appearance Friday afternoon in Brown County Circuit Court . He is charged with one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child under 16 with the threat of force, two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, one count of repeated sexual assault of the same child, two counts of causing a child between ages 13 and 18 to view sexual activity, two counts of child enticement for sexual contact and one count of false imprisonment.
According to a criminal complaint, Johnson had repeated sexual encounters with a 15-year-old Freddy's employee in July. The victim's parents contacted De Pere police about it July 31, after learning about the situation from the parent of a concerned friend.
In an interview with investigators Aug. 1, the girl said Johnson had recently been "put on leave" from Freddy's after another 15-year-old female employee said he raped her.
In an Aug. 2 interview with investigators, the second 15-year-old employee said sometime in the middle of July, Johnson was giving her a ride home from work when he instead drove her back to his apartment. At his apartment, he took her phone away, sexually assaulted her and forced her to stay the night, the girl said.
The second employee quit after the incident and reported Johnson's behaviors to the Freddy's general manager.
During the investigation into the assaults of the two Freddy's employees, investigators tied Johnson to a sexual assault report made by another 15-year-old girl in November 2022.
On Nov. 21, the girl told a Brown County Sheriff's deputy who was employed as a school resource officer at Bay Port High School in Suamico that Johnson kissed her and inappropriately touched her on multiple occasions while they both worked at the Culver's at 11820 Velp Ave. He also sent her explicit photos through Snapchat, the girl said.
The girl said she reported it to the Culver's storeowner Nov. 18, after the storeowner asked her what was going on, when other employees had raised concerns about Johnson's behavior toward her.
The storeowner then fired Johnson. Johnson was banned from other Culver's properties as well, the complaint says.
After the De Pere Police Department took Johnson into custody Aug. 9 on suspicion of the sexual assaults of underage Freddy's employees, a detective contacted the Brown County Sheriff's deputy who conducted the investigation into the November report.
The deputy said he has been "attempting to contact Johnson for several months" and was not able to physically find him, but did leave voice messages and texts for Johnson on his cellphone, which he never received a response to.
All three of the girls who reported incidents said Johnson knew how old they were.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
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This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Culver's, Freddy's manager charged with sexual assault of minors
