A Santa Cruz man who beat another man in the head with a bat during a custody dispute, received a conditional discharge on a charge of attempted battery with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 18 months probation.
District Judge Jason Lidyard accepted the plea deal and issued the condition discharge for Joseph Johnson, 69, whose last name is also spelled as “Jonson” in court documents, on May 7, following a plea deal in April.
His daughter Jillian Johnson was charged with two counts of child abuse, two counts of custodial interference and one count each of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for the same incident.
Joseph Johnson found her dead from a possible overdose on Nov. 28, 2024 in Cordova.
Española City Police officers were sent to a fight at a house on March 29, 2024.
There, Jillian Johnson told them that she was not supposed to have contact with her children or go to their grandparents’ house, where they were staying, Officer Donivan Byers wrote in a statement of probable cause.
When their other grandparent, Glen Herrera, tried to leave with the children, Jillian Johnson allegedly tried to prevent him from doing so by closing his truck door and then standing in front of it.
He then slapped her, Byers wrote.
Joseph Johnson then allegedly hit Herrera in the head with the bat, then they started punching each other before a neighbor intervened, took away the bat and separated them, Byers wrote.
He then arrested Joseph Johnson, he wrote.