Alleged Victim Tells of Tactics Used by Psychic

A 32-year-old Mexican immigrant said Wednesday that a Sherman Oaks fortuneteller convinced him he would die of cancer within three days if he didn’t give her $27,000 to rid him of an evil curse.

Juan Gonzalez testified in Van Nuys Municipal Court that he gave the money to Laura Johns, 28, professionally known as Sheena, expecting to get it back once the spell was lifted. However, she refused to return it, he said.

After the preliminary hearing, during which Gonzalez and others testified, Judge Robert H. Wallerstein ordered Johns to stand trial on a charge of grand theft. She will be arraigned Aug. 26 on the charge.

Refusal to Lower Bail

Wallerstein also refused Wednesday to lower Johns’ $60,000 bail, although her attorney said she is pregnant and in ill health.

For Gonzalez, the loss he suffered at Johns’ hands was almost the end of a lifelong dream, he testified.

During the past 10 years, he had worked two jobs to save enough money to buy a home in the San Fernando Valley, said Leslie L. MacChiarella, his attorney. Just recently he had cut back to one job--operating his modest bakery.

“His dream was to purchase a home,” MacChiarella said. Since his ordeal with Johns, Gonzalez has recovered $21,000 of the $27,000 from a bank that cashed the cashier’s check he had given Johns. The rest of the money he gave her was cash.

Gonzalez, who testified in Spanish with the aid of an interpreter, said he went to see Johns on May 29 over a dispute with his girlfriend, who wouldn’t return his $2,500.

He said Johns, who operated a fortunetelling business out of a house on Ventura Boulevard, told him the girlfriend had “bewitched” him, was after his money, and would cause his death within three days.

Besides asking for his money, Gonzalez said, Johns told him to perform a number of rituals to rid himself of the curse. He took her tomatoes, which she put in a paper bag and smashed with her foot. When she opened the bag she produced a crystal object, Gonzalez said.

“She got very excited and started shouting, ‘A devil’s eye--you have cancer,’ ” he said.

Folded 3 Bills

She advised him to fold three bills--$5, $10, and $20--in the shape of a cross and place it on his chest while he slept, he said.

On another occasion, Johns put an egg in a paper bag, stomped it with her foot, reached inside and pulled out what looked like a plant root, Gonzalez testified. She told him, he said, that the root meant she had extracted the cancer from his stomach.

She asked him for $21,000 in cash and he returned with a cashier’s check in that amount, Gonzalez said. He later turned over another $6,000 to her, he testified. The money was to be returned to him after Johns had had it blessed in a church, Gonzalez testified.

Johns’ attorney, Lloyd Hartman, contended that Gonzalez was not victimized by Johns but was simply a “dissatisfied customer” who paid for her services.

Willing Participant

“He knew what he was doing,” he said.

Johns is awaiting trial on three counts of grand theft in a similar case involving three other former customers. One of the alleged victims, a Tarzana woman, told police she gave $13,000 to Johns to lift a curse on her brother.

Johns was arrested in April in that case. While out on bond, she was arrested in July in the Gonzalez case.