Fortuneteller Gets 1 Year in Jail for $40,000 Swindle

A Sherman Oaks fortuneteller who pleaded no contest to swindling four customers out of more than $40,000 was sentenced Thursday to a year in County Jail despite the tearful pleas of her sister.

Laura Johns, 28, pleaded no contest to four counts of grand theft last August and could have received seven years in prison.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene E. Schempp ordered Johns to make restitution to her victims, saying she gave Johns a relatively light sentence to enable her to do so.

The Los Angeles County probation department has not yet determined the amount Johns will be required to pay back.

Johns, known professionally as “Sheena,” was arrested in July and already has served 101 days of her sentence, said Sammy Weiss, her attorney.

“I’m giving you mercy by not sending you to state prison,” Schempp said. “But I find it very difficult to be sympathetic when I think of the emotional turmoil the victims went through.”

Johns’ victims included Juan Rivera Gonzales, a 32-year-old Mexican immigrant, who said Johns convinced him he would die of cancer within three days if he did not give her $27,000 he had saved over 11 years. Another victim, Pam Pile, a 28-year-old college graduate from Tarzana, said she was told her brother would die unless she gave Johns $13,000.

The two other victims lost a total of $1,500. “Each felt intimidated and threatened by the terrible tragedies this woman predicted in their future,” said a probation report prepared before the sentencing.

Curses Lifted by Ritual

Johns, who operated a fortune-telling business out of a house on Ventura Boulevard from November, 1986, to May, 1987, performed a variety of rituals she said would lift “curses” from her customers, the report said.

Weiss said the victims voluntarily gave Johns the money. “She did not twist their arms or use any violence,” he said.

“She took their trust and she played on it,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Korban. “She gets into people and she makes them trust her and destroys their life from the inside. Her only skill is to try and rip people off.”

While in jail, Johns gave birth prematurely to a girl, Crystal Johns, Weiss said. The 7-week-old infant was brought to the courtroom Thursday by Johns’ sister, Sylvia Johns.

Sylvia Johns pleaded with Schempp to order her sister released, ending her plea with a tearful shriek. “I feel the baby needs her mother because there’s no one else to take care of her,” she said.

Weiss said the jail sentence “did not make any sense” because it would delay the repayment of the victims. “What’s the purpose of throwing her in jail when she has to make restitution?” Weiss asked. The Los Angeles-area Gypsy Council had raised about $16,000 to repay the victims, Weiss said.

Johns, who dropped out of school at 14, spoke briefly Thursday in her own defense. “I do know what I’ve done was very wrong, and I will no longer go into that line of business,” she said.