Teen-Ager Testifies at Deputy’s Attempted-Rape Trial

A teen-age girl testified Wednesday that a sheriff’s deputy attempted to have intercourse with her as she lay sleeping on a couch in her Encinitas apartment.

The testimony came on the first day of the attempted-rape trial of Ray Johnson, a deputy formerly based at the Encinitas sheriff’s substation.

Johnson, 37, is accused of attacking the girl, who was 16 at the time, after dining with her and her roommate hours before.

Johnson, who was off duty at the time of the incident Aug. 2, 1990, is charged with the attempted rape of an unconscious person and the attempted rape of a person younger than 18.

On the first day of the trial, the girl told a six-man, six-woman jury how she met Johnson after her roommate called the deputy because they “didn’t have anything better to do.”

In previous court hearings, testimony indicated that the 22-year-old roommate had met Johnson about a week earlier, after he responded to her call to a suicide hot line.

The three ate at a Denny’s restaurant in Del Mar, then returned to the Village Park Apartments, where the two lived, the girl said. The girl testified that Johnson was aware of her age, and that she found it strange to be out with a deputy after curfew.

Soon after returning home, she said, she fell asleep on the couch, where she normally slept, then awoke to find that she had been mostly undressed and that Johnson was attempting to have intercourse with her.

She ordered him to get up three times before he reacted, she said, and he eventually left without saying anything.

Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. The trial continues today.