Johnson gives up his rights as a father

GUILDERLAND — Timothy Johnson this week gave up his rights as a father to his two daughters.

“His rights were terminated as of 2 p.m. on Dec. 21,” said his wife, Jessica Johnson.

A termination of rights means he will never be granted any type of visits with his daughters, but he also won’t have to continue to pay child support, she said.

“He can’t fight anymore, he is physically done,” Mrs. Johnson concluded. “He is hurting, but he has to move forward.”

The couple has a child, a son, of their own.

In 2005, Mr. Johnson, who was then 32, and Jessica Bruno (as Mrs. Johnson was named before marrying) were arrested for abusing his daughters, who were then 6 and 4.  The couple was arrested following an 18-month investigation by the Guilderland Police Department, led by Sergeant Roger Ginder.

Ginder told The Enterprise earlier this year that, though the investigation was lengthy, he doesn’t recall much of it.

“Really, it’s been five years, almost six, and I can’t talk much about the investigation because there were two juveniles involved,” Ginder said. He said he wanted to make it clear that the Guilderland Police Department did not initiate the investigation on its own, but based it on an outside complaint it had received from the children’s mother in Connecticut.

New York’s Supreme Court, the lowest in a three-tiered state system, decided in March 2007 to dismiss all charges against Johnson and Bruno, with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be retried.

“In light of the Court’s decision to dismiss, with prejudice, all of the charges in this matter, the Court sees no reason to revisit its earlier decision to deny defendant Johnson’s motion for a mistrial,” wrote Roger D. McDonough, acting justice of the Supreme Court. “Additionally, the Court will not entertain defendant Johnson’s renewed motion regarding the sufficiency of the People’s evidence, as the instant decision renders such motion moot.”