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Johnson’s accuser gives her side of incident
By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star
The woman accusing Chiefs running back Larry Johnson of assault said Tuesday that she no longer allows her daughter to wear his jersey.
Tashell Johns, 26, said she couldn’t permit her daughter to wear the number of someone she felt showed so little respect for women.
“She can be a Chiefs fan if she wants to, but I can’t allow that,” Johns said.
Johnson’s lawyer, Kevin E.J. Regan, said that his client did nothing inappropriate to Johns in the early morning of Feb. 24 at Zen, a nightclub at 3832 Main St. As Regan described it, club security officers, not Johnson, restrained Johns after she “threw herself toward him.”
Johnson is facing a municipal ordinance violation related to the incident and is expected to appear in court in December.
Johns told police that she and a friend were walking through the crowded club, hand in hand to keep from being separated, when Johnson moved through the crowd toward them and pushed her.
In a telephone interview with The Kansas City Star, Johns disputed Regan’s characterization of her as behaving in “an intoxicated manner.” Johns said she had been at Zen since about 11:30 p.m. and had consumed one alcoholic beverage early on.
By the time of the alleged pushing incident — 2:15 a.m. — she was completely sober, Johns said.
“I did have a drink, but one drink will not intoxicate me,” Johns said.
She alleged that right before Johnson put his hand on her face and shoved her backward, she had raised her hand to signal to another friend at the club.
“I guess he assumed I was trying to touch him,” Johns said. “I was just trying to show my girlfriend where I was.”
Johns said she elected to delay reporting the incident. Her decision to file the complaint the next afternoon stemmed, in part, from her own experiences growing up with abuse.
“If I can’t allow someone close to me to put hands on me in an unloving way, how could I let this complete stranger do it?” Johns said.
“It’s not something I take lightly at all.”
Regan said he has conducted an extensive investigation of the incident, has lined up “impartial” witnesses for the trial and is convinced Johnson will be vindicated.
“Our evidence is 100 percent clear and certain that Larry Johnson did not put his hands on any woman that night,” Regan said.
Johnson emerged from his two prior legal incidents without convictions. In 2003, he was accused of aggravated assault and misdemeanor domestic battery for allegedly brandishing a gun during an argument with a former girlfriend.
Those charges were dropped the following year after he agreed to enter a domestic-violence diversion program.
In 2005, a woman accused Johnson of pulling her to the exit of a nightspot on the Country Club Plaza and pushing her to the floor after an argument.
That woman later changed her story and insisted that she did not want to press charges against Johnson. Prosecutors dropped the assault charge after she missed three court hearings.
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