BROOKLYN COP

SEXUALLY ASSAULTS TEEN IN HER OWN HOME

NYPD USES GUN TO INTIMIDATE GUYANESE GIRL FOR SEX

Ronessa Hollingsworth and her mother

By Helen Peterson, Daily News Staff Writer

A Brooklyn cop has been charged with sexually abusing a schoolgirl he allegedly plucked off an East Flatbush street - an ordeal that haunts the teen as she’s set to graduate high school today.

In an exclusive interview, Ronessa Hollingsworth gave a harrowing account of the alleged incident, which she said began when a plainclothes cop stopped her on her way to school and told her to get in his car.

Hollingsworth

She said she was scared: Would he take her to a truancy office? Call her mother? Call her teachers?But veteran Officer Andrew Johnson had a much more devious plan - according to prosecutors and court papers - and within hours the once bubbly teen would see her world turned upside down. “I was shocked,” the 17-year-old tearfully told the Daily News as she relived her anguish and described how she’s now afraid to go anywhere without her mother.

 Rogue cop Andrew Johnson

Johnson, 35, who was assigned to Brooklyn’s 67th Precinct, is charged with sexually abusing the slender high school senior last Jan. 18 in her own home. She contends he showed her his gun and tried to force himself on her while she tried desperately to get away. Ronessa’s mother, Bronwyn Brown, who has filed a civil suit against the cop and the NYPD, said prosecutors want to reduce the misdemeanor charges pending against Johnson to a violation - essentially a summons.

“They said it was in Ronessa’s best interest,” said Brown, a public school teacher. “Basically, they are asking me to drop the charges. I mean, to intimidate a child by taking out a gun?” Brown said the incident has devastated her daughter, who hopes to become a teacher, too, and is set to graduate today from Leon Goldstein High School for the Sciences. “For three months, I had to take her toschool. Ronessa was a very bubbly personality. Not anymore,” said Brown, a native of Guyana who came to the U.S. with her daughter in 2002 after she was recruited to teach by the city.A spokesman for District Attorney Charles Hynes confirmed that Johnson is charged with third-degree sexual abuse, attempted sexual abuse and official misconduct. He faces up to ayear in prison, if convicted.

The spokesman declined to comment further.Ronessa said she was with three neighborhood boys on E. 53rd St., near Church Ave., about 9:30 a.m., when Johnson and another unidentified plainclothes cop allegedly stopped to ask the teens why they were not in school. “I told him I was on my way to school, that I was just late,” Ronessa said. She said he told the boys to go on to school and “instructed me” to get in the car. He took her name, address and cell phone number, she said. “He asked me if I knew it was a dangerous neighborhood. He said he would take me home. I was very nervous,” she said. “I was hoping that he wouldn’t call my mom. He asked me what time my mother would be home. I said 5 or 5:30.”Johnson came back to the house about 3:30 p.m., uninvited, Ronessa said. “He said stuff like I’m ‘very pretty.’ He commented that it is good that I am 17 because now I’m legal. He asked me if I ever dated a police officer,” she said. “I was kind of shocked,” she said. “He started touching me. He was grabbing me, kissing me.” She said she ran to the living room to get away from him.“He was enjoying it. He said, ‘Oh, come on, you’re 17,’” she said in her soft voice as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Eventually he got me, grabbed me. He had me in the chair. I got him off of me. We were running around the living room, around the coffee table.“He took out his gun and put it on the table. He said I’m ‘very pretty and [I] shouldn’t be shy.’” Ronessa said Johnson was trying to pull her clothes off when she broke free and ran to the window. She suddenly spotted her mother’s car outside. “I said, ‘My mother’s home.’ He got his jacket and gun and left,” she said.

The teen said that right after Johnson left at 4p.m., he called her cell phone and asked her to come outside. She refused. She did not tell her mother what happened. He called her the next day, she said, but she didn’t answer. Two days later, she said, he called again and asked if he could drive her to school. She said no.

That’s when she told a teacher and guidance counselor, who called cops. Ronessa called her mother. The teen said at first police didn’t believe her, but arrested Johnson Feb. 1 after setting up a sting to record calls he made to her cell phone.

The family’s lawyer Seth Harris said the civil suit seeks unspecified damages for sexual assault, battery, false imprisonment and negligence, plus $5 million in punitive damages. It also charges the NYPD with failing to properly train and supervise Johnson.

“Clearly there is a problem here,” said Harris, who filed the suit on Friday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. Johnson’s criminal defense lawyer was unavailable for comment. The cop could not be reached. His mother and sister seemed unfamiliar with the charges when asked about them at their home on Saturday.

A city lawyer said the case is being reviewed. A police spokesman said Johnson joined the NYPD Aug. 31, 1998, and is now suspended without pay. Brown believes that it was only her unexpected arrival that probably saved her daughter more pain. “I think about that a lot,” Brown said. “I believe in God. I just believe that it was divine intervention,” she said. “I had a free afternoon. I could have gone anywhere.”