LI Man Pleads Guilty To Raping Woman Inside Wyandanch Home: DA

WYANDANCH, NY — A Long Island man pleaded guilty in court on Friday, to charges of raping a woman inside her Wyandanch home in September 2020, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said.

On Sept. 19, 2020, Joseph T. Johnson, 33, broke into the woman's residence in Wyandanch while she was inside the home, according to court documents and the Johnson's admissions during his guilty plea allocution.

Johnson then raped the victim in the home, before stealing cash and fleeing the scene, prosecutors said.

Following the break-in, the victim installed several surveillance cameras in and around the residence.

Two days later, on Sept. 21, 2020, the victim received an alert that her newly installed surveillance cameras had been turned off. She then saw that cameras were damaged or turned away from the home, and the wires had been cut.

Video surveillance captured before the cameras were damaged showed Johnson, wearing white face paint, inside the woman's residence.

Johnson was subsequently arrested by members of the Suffolk County Police Department.

Upon further investigation, Johnson was also determined to be the perpetrator of the Sept. 19, 2020, rape through DNA testing.

“This is an extremely disturbing case. This defendant broke into the victim’s home and then
proceeded to brutally rape her,” said Tierney. “This dangerous individual and now convicted sex offender will now go to prison for his crime, where he will be unable to terrorize anyone else.”

Johnson pleaded guilty on Friday before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Karen M. Wilutis, to first-degree rape. He is due back in court on Sept. 8 for sentencing and is expected to be sentenced to 18 years in prison followed by 20 years of post-release supervision, Tierney said.

Ian Fitzgerald, Johnson's attorney, declined to provide a comment for Patch.