LAKE HAVASU CITY – New information has been provided in the ancient criminal case involving the former Lake Havasu City police detective charged with crimes involving the department’s evidence room and theft of funds earmarked for undercover investigations.
John Hickey Johnson, 53, is charged with drug transfer, forgery, fraud and theft in a 48-count indictment dating back to 2016. Many of those alleged offenses occurred long before the indictment.
Johnson, years ago, was allowed to relocate to Massachusetts while his case was pending and a parade of attorneys handling the matter have come and gone.
Currently handling the matter are Yavapai County prosecutor Nathan Best and Kingman based defense attorney Jaimye Ashley. They provided a case update during a status hearing before Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen on Friday, April 4.
Best informed the Court that the state has revised its previous plea agreement offer to settle the case short of trial for a 5–10-year prison term. He said assessment of case weaknesses have resulted in a new offer of 2-5 years in prison, followed by probation.
Ashley said her client is not inclined to take the deal, shifting discussion to trial schedule.
Best said he’s not available for trial until next March. Jantzen cited some conflicts with March and set Johnson’s ten-day trial to begin on April 7, 2026.
Jantzen calculated the trial set was one year and three days from the status hearing. He said he’d never before set a criminal trial that far out, hinted he might be retiring sometime next year, while noting it might end up with another Judge.
Jantzen and Best engaged in more arithmetic and informed Johnson that his punishment would be between 48 and 189 years in prison if convicted of all counts at trial.
Best and Ashley intend to meet in Lake Havasu City in coming weeks for an evidence review. Ashley noted complication in that some witnesses are in prison, some are out of state, some are 70 years old and others may no longer exist.
Jantzen scheduled a July 11 status hearing.
