Wanted Drug Court Poster Girl Catches New Drug Case, Goes Back to Jail

MORRIS, IL — A former Will County prosecutor and candidate for Grundy County State’s Attorney was jailed on a felony drug charge, according to the sheriff’s department personnel.

Elizabeth Johnson, 34, was taken into custody Friday on a charge of possession of a controlled substance, a staffer at the Grundy County jail said.

Johnson, the one-time poster child for the Will County State’s Attorney’s special drug court program, was also wanted for skipping a court date in Joliet last week. She was supposed to make her first appearance on a charge of resisting the police. She failed to appear and Judge Bennett Braun issued a warrant for her arrest.

Johnson was jailed last month for allegedly scuffling with the cops after pounding on her boyfriend’s door. She was also charged with possessing marijuana when Will County deputies found 10 grams of it in her father’s Camaro, police said.

The Camaro was stuck in the mud in a ditch near the Lockner Boulevard home of Johnson’s boyfriend, Michael Haldorson. Haldorson is on home detention while he faces drug and weapon charges in federal court. He was caught with cocaine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and pipe bombs while on his way to a drug deal, a federal agent said, and he had a pistol stashed in a storage locker.

Johnson represented Haldorson on the federal case for nearly a year. She filed notice with the court to withdraw as his attorney the same morning she was released from jail on her own recognizance . She was removed from the case three days later.

Johnson also referred to Haldorson as her “ex-boyfriend” while speaking to a deputy at the scene of the alleged disturbance on the night of her arrest, police said.

That night, Haldorson called the cops on Johnson, police said. When deputies arrived, they reportedly found Johnson “pounding on the door,” and Haldorson told them she had been doing so for about an hour.

Johnson had been in the house earlier, and she and Haldorson argued, police said.

Deputies attempted to escort Johnson, who smelled of alcohol, away, police said, but she resisted.

Johnson left her job as a Will County prosecutor in September 2011. She was hired by the state’s attorney’s office after completing its special drug court program.

“Life was spinning out of control. And (Johnson) knew a felony conviction would prevent her from attending law school and becoming a lawyer. It had been her dream career since she was a girl and she would dress up with an old briefcase while pretending to be in court,” the state’s attorney’s office said in a 2011 press release.

“In the ultimate validation for the program, State’s Attorney (James) Glasgow, the same prosecutor whose office filed the felony charge against her when she was a teenager, recently welcomed her back to his office, this time as a new assistant state’s attorney in his misdemeanor division,” the press release said.

Johnson’s campaign for Grundy County State’s Attorney ended with her defeat in the March primary.

In May, Johnson was charged with taking off from an accident she caused when she crashed her truck into the back of another vehicle.

The other driver, Dawn Brunker, said Johnson boasted of her legal background and claimed she didn’t have to provide any information.

“She knew the law and she was a lawyer and didn't need to give me her insurance info or name,” said Brunker, who told Patch she snapped a cell phone photo of Johnson before she drove away.

Johnson’s traffic cases remain pending.

photo via Will County Sheriff's Department