LA GRANDE — Albert Wayne Johnson, 42, of La Grande, was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison Wednesday, May 15, for sexually abusing and transporting two minors from Washington state, whom he met through Snapchat.

Johnson was sentenced to 151 months in federal prison and 10 years supervised release.

Court documents revealed that on Aug. 8, 2022, deputies from the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of two minors abandoned at Barton Park in Boring. The children disclosed to deputies that they had encountered Johnson on Snapchat and he had driven them from Washington through Idaho and into Oregon, and he sexually abused both during the trip.

Johnson made stops along the way, including at a motel in Othello, Washington, where he abused the children, and a campground near La Grande, where he continued to abuse one of the children. Upon arriving in Boring, Johnson deserted the children at a campsite in Barton Park and did not return.

Detectives from the Othello Police Department contacted the Othello motel and acquired surveillance footage showing Johnson with the two children.

Officers and deputies from the La Grande Police Department, Union County Sheriff’s Office, Union County Probation Department and Umatilla Tribal Police Department located Johnson at his residence in La Grande and arrested him on an outstanding parole violation warrant.

Johnson was charged by criminal complaint with coercing and enticing a minor and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Subsequently, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment charging Johnson with traveling across state lines to engage in a sexual act with a minor, transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and commission of a sex offense by a registered sex offender.

In early 2024, Johnson pleaded guilty to transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.