A Black mother is fighting for justice for her 8-year-old son after the child’s sexual assault case was dismissed without prejudice Friday.
The charges against an Evansville, Indiana man accused of molesting a child at his wife’s day care have been dismissed, the man’s attorney said.
Gregory Michael Johnston, 38, was charged with six counts of child molestation as a level 1 felony and one count of dissemination of matter harmful to minors, a level 6 felony in February, according to the Evansville Courier & Press.
He is accused of molesting the child at his wife’s home daycare, Lil’ Piggies Child Care on Crystal Court, which closed voluntarily the day after Johnston’s arrest, the newspaper reported.
The child reported the alleged abuse to an interviewer at Holly’s House, a victim advocacy center, and also told investigators Johnston made threats and showed him pornographic videos on his phone, authorities told the Evansville Courier & Press.
Kelly Jo Marshall, the child’s mother, said in an emotional Facebook video she has been taking her children to the day care since they were 6 weeks old.
“This man molested my child. A man that I called bruh, called him bruh,” she said. “This man was a pallbearer at my mama’s funeral. This whole time this man was messing with my son, messing with him.”
Johnston’s attorney Glenn Grampp told the Evansville Courier & Press prosecutors filed the motion that led to the case’s dismissal without prejudice, which means they could try the case at a later time.
Grampp told the newspaper his client’s bond and Johnston’s obligations to home detention have all been released.
Marshall called the prosecutor’s decision to have the case dismissed a “smack in the face.” “I’ve done everything that they’ve asked me to do,” she said, crying and screaming in the Facebook video.
She allowed officials into her home, she said. They visited the school, she said.
Yet even with her cooperation, the prosecution decided to file a motion to have the case dismissed and pick the case up later, she said.
“How the f–k is that even right,” Marshall asked. “And this man gets to be out here around other people’s kids.”
Deputy prosecutor Emily Hall wrote in the motion to dismiss that the “state has been informed that the victim is unavailable to testify and does not know when the victim will be available to testify,” according to the Evansville Courier & Press.
Prosecutor spokeswoman Jess Powers said in a statement the newspaper obtained that the decision to delay prosecution was made “upon recommendation of the therapists and community partners involved in this case.”
“The State of Indiana was forced to dismiss the case without prejudice in hopes of re-filing charges in the future,” Powers said in the statement. “The ultimate goal of our office is to hold any criminal wrong-doer to justice, however, the health and well-being of our victim is of the utmost important and must take priority.”
Marshall called the prosecution’s actions a “smack in the face.”
Her son’s case has attracted national attention, and her Facebook video was shared more than 700 times.
Tammy Rivera, the wife of rapper Waka Flocka, shared multiple Instagram posts Tuesday encouraging any other victims in the case to come forward.
“You have ppl standing with you now,” she said in one post.
In another post, Rivera featured the video of Marshall.
“No, I’m not trusting nobody else because I have severely been f—ed,” the woman said of prosecutors. “I have severely been f—ed, not me, my child. Nobody knows what my child’s going through.
“Nobody knows what the inside of my house is like on a day to day basis. I have to live with that. My child has to live with that,” Marshall said.
The mother said prosecutors wasted her time and wasted her son’s time at a point in their lives when they are attending doctor’s appointments Monday through Thursday for the child.
“This shit ain’t right,” she said. “This shit ain’t right.”
She also addressed the accused molester.
“Greg Johnston, you gon’ reap what you sow,” she said, “because you have completely robbed my son from everything, everything.”
She said he “is not the same little boy.”
“He’ll never be the same little boy, ever because of you, and you out here walking,” Marshall said.
She told Johnston she would not stop fighting.
“I’ma fight this to the death of me, and I mean that with every breath in my body,” she said.
She later added:
“I’m tired of pushing shit back. I need justice for my son.”
Marshall told Johnston in her video:
“You know what you did, patting me on my back, telling me you love me and all this and that, doing all this extra shit,” she said, “and the whole time you been sitting there messing with my child.
“You gon’ meet your maker. You gon’ meet him.”
