Bardstown man charged with stalking after complaint at fast-food restaurant

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

JOHNNY DEAN JOHNSON

Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014, 3:30 p.m. — A Bardstown man was arrested Thursday morning in the parking lot of the Bardstown McDonald’s restaurant following a complaint that the man had been harassing a female employee.

Nelson County Dispatch told Bardstown Police a man in a black 2001 Pontiac was in the restaurant parking lot with binoculars. The man had a history of harassing a 19-year-old woman who worked at the restaurant. The woman told police the man had followed her when she left work, and she had resorted to traveling different routes in order to elude him. He would enter the restaurant, buy a dollar menu item and stay inside the store for hours while she worked there. When she went outside on breaks, the man would follow her outside.

Police arrived at the restaurant and found 50-year-old Johnny Dean Johnson inside his car. When police approached, he pretended to be asleep. They found a pair of binoculars at his feet, a baseball bat by the door, and a stick, knife and duct tape in the back seat.

Officers determined that Johnson is on the lifetime sex offender registry and has an extensive criminal history that includes a previous stalking charge.

Johnson was arrested and his car was impounded. He was lodged in the Nelson County Jail on charges of stalking, second-degree, and failure of a vehicle owner to have property insurance or security.

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