One day after he was found guilty of five counts of child endangerment, a York County man is speaking publicly about the ordeal.
In handing down his verdict, the judge said he questioned whether this was a case of criminalizing poverty, but prosecutors successfully argued this case was about much more.
However, the father of those children, Sinhue Johnson, has a lot to say about his case.
“The truth will be the truth,” Johnson told us.
Sinhue Johnson was credited with time served, so he won’t return to prison. Instead, he'll spend his time arguing his conviction of five counts of child endangerment.
His children were taken from him and his common law wife, Louann Bowers in 2009. Investigators claimed the children were being hidden from the world and lived in squalor.
“I'm partial about where my kids go and conditions around them, as a father I protect them,” Johnson told us. “My kids played around nieces, nephews, cousins, certain kids, just because people didn't get to see them, that doesn't mean nothing,” argued Johnson.
Johnson has answers for every charge.
“We don't believe in birth certificates or social security numbers or immunization, which are all apart of state law,” Johnson continued.
The Duke Street home where the children lived has been described as filthy, with no heat or running water. But Johnson says that's because the home had deteriorated by the time it was photographed a year after the children were removed.
“Remember there were no charges of endangerment until after a year was up,” Johnson advised us.
When the kids were put into foster care, they were enrolled in school for the first time. They tested a grade or two behind their peers. Three of the children testified for prosecutors this week.
At this time they all remain in foster care.
“My son wants me to be part of his life, other kids did at one time, but someone told me my daughters are scared of me,” Johnson added. “Now who would have done that? My daughters used to love me.”
It should say Bowers entered a no contest plea, and has been released from prison.
