Probation for Elgin man busted with 8 pounds of pot
A 21-year-old Elgin man who was busted with 8 pounds of marijuana and then tried to say it was his dad’s has pleaded guilty to felony drug possession.
Joseph J. Johnson, of the 500 block of Regent Street, was sentenced to three years probation, 48 days periodic imprisonment and fined more than $13,000 for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, court records show.
If Johnson violates probation, he could get between four and 15 years in prison.
Kane County Judge Clint Hull accepted the plea, records show. A message left with Assistant Public Defender Christopher Fletcher was not immediately returned.
According to Elgin police, Johnson was arrested in early June after a traffic stop on the 600 block of Villa Street. Johnson was a passenger in the car and the driver gave authorities consent to search the vehicle.
The search turned up 3,632 grams of marijuana — just more than 8 pounds — in two large plastic containers. Police said Johnson told authorities he was asked to take the drugs to his father’s friend and that police recently arrested the elder Johnson but failed to find the marijuana.
The father, Joseph Johnson, 39, of the 0-99 block of Pioneer Park Place, Elgin, had been arrested in Elgin two days earlier on felony charges of possession of hydrocodone, a controlled substance. He was on parole when he ran a stop sign, so police patted him down and found 12 hydrocodone pills and a small amount of marijuana, according to police.
The case of the elder Johnson is still pending and he is due in court on April 25, according to court records. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison on the most serious charge.
The younger Johnson was arrested in 2009 on misdemeanor marijuana charges in Elgin, but did not have any felony convictions in Kane County before this case, records show.