BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

A status hearing has been set for May 9 in Los Alamos Magistrate Court for Michael J. Johnson, 44, of Los Alamos on a charge of abuse of a child not resulting in death or great bodily harm.

A criminal summons for Johnson was issued Apr. 22 after Los Alamos Police officers were sent to a residence on Navajo Street where a man said Johnson’s five year old daughter cane to his residence screaming that her father had fallen down and was bleeding. When LAPD Cpl. James Keane arrived at the scene Court documents indicate he entered Johnson’s residence where he found him on the floor in a bedroom with an abrasion above his eye.

A report filed by Sgt. Ben Irving, indicates Johnson smelled of alcohol and was attempting to get dressed to take the child to preschool. The mother was gone on a business trip, the report stated. Officers made lunch for the child and took her to preschool. Johnson was taken to Los Alamos Medical Center for evaluation by Los Alamos Fire Department personnel. Irvin interviewed the reporting party later in the day.

Irving’s report says the man had never met the girl or her parents prior to when she showed up at his door. The man said Johnson asked him several times to take the girl to preschool. The report says Irving decided to issue the summons for child abuse for Johnson based on the girl being in a dangerous situation with no parental guidance or protection; the child having to make contact with a person she didn’t  know; the lack of adequate foodstuffs for school due to Johnson’s intoxication and Johnson’s directions to the man to take the child to school without prior interaction of any kind.