Small town shaken by pornography arrest

WESTPHALIA, Mo. -- The mood in this small German-Catholic town isn't what it should be this time of year. Typically, the 320 residents of Westphalia are discussing the annual fall festival and talking about Fatima High School sports.

This year, the mood is darker.

Westphalia resident Danny Johnson, the superintendent of Osage County School District, was arrested last week for allegedly using the ruse of a model search to lure a 15-year-old girl to a motel in nearby Rolla. He is accused of taking pornographic pictures of her.

Westphalia is home to the district's Fatima school, which serves about 800 students from small towns with names like Meta and Bonnots Mill. Among the citizens of Westphalia, located 15 miles southeast of the state capital in Jefferson City, there's a mixture of shock, anger and disbelief.

At Joe's Market, located along U.S. 63 a few blocks from Main Street, Darlene Berhorst has difficulty putting the situation into perspective, as do many of the store's customers.

"People were just really surprised that it happened. Some were shocked and some were angry," said Berhorst, 54, a Fatima graduate from years past. "I didn't know him well and dealt with him a little through the store. I didn't know he was capable of that."

Recently resigned

Johnson, who recently resigned, hasn't been convicted, but many in the town talk as if he has. He is scheduled to be arraigned next month.

Besides the Rolla girl, police say Johnson is believed to have photographed at least three others, whom they are trying to identify.

There is no evidence at this point that any of Johnson's photo subjects were from the school district he oversaw, said Osage County Sheriff Carl Fowler.

Fowler, who grew up in nearby Loose Creek, said one of his hardest jobs has been trying to allay the fears of school officials and parents.

"I know there are fears and concerns," Fowler said. But "it appears that Mr. Johnson went to great lengths to distance his alleged activity from his position here."

Still, some experts say that when an alleged crime of this type hits small communities, the impact is more substantial than in larger cities, where crime is more widespread.

"I think in small towns when something happens, it's like it's happening to everyone and it's more immediate," says John Galliher, a professor of sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "There are all kinds of reasons why they would expect this wouldn't happen."

Internet 'opened the doors'

The Internet, which investigators say Johnson used to set up his modeling agency, can bring the world to a small town and can be used for good or bad, said Bill Conway, assistant director of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control.

"It really has opened the doors for bad guys to communicate. You can use the Internet in a lot of ways to perpetuate different crimes," Conway said.

While national statistics are hard to come by, there has been extensive national attention to the problem of adults who stalk children on the Internet.

Lawmakers at the state and national levels have also been trying to deal with Internet predators.

Missouri lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year that makes it a crime to entice a child. In Congress, legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., is intended to outlaw exploitive child modeling.

Foley's bill would impose prison terms of up to 10 years for exploitive child modeling, defined as "marketing the child himself or herself in lascivious positions and acts, rather than actually marketing products."

At the 100-year-old Werner House Bread and Breakfast in Westphalia, Linda Fernandez still talks eagerly about the "rock solid" nature of the people of Westphalia. But she is concerned about perception.

"It just sickens me because it puts Westphalia and all these littler communities in such a bad light," said Fernandez, 43, who graduated from Fatima and taught school there for 11 years. "I'm afraid that people will associate Fatima with this."

Some have openly expressed anger about the allegations.

Just days after authorities seized camera equipment, computers and other items from Fatima and Johnson's home, a sign that began "A pedophile lives here" appeared outside the house Johnson shared with his wife. The rest of the message was more graphic.

'Stepped on a lot of toes'

Paul Slater, editor of Unterrified Democrat newspaper in Linn, said Johnson had rubbed many longtime residents of Osage County the wrong way. For example, Johnson had raised concerns about the use of public school buses by parochial students.

In the heavily Catholic community, that didn't go over well.

"He has given a lot of ammunition to his detractors who were critical of him for unpopular decisions he made regarding the school. He stepped on a lot of toes and gored a lot of sacred cows," Slater says.

But at Bexten's Service, a gas station in Westphalia, owner Bernice Bexton said the trust that existed in town before the Johnson case is as strong as ever.

"You can't say you can't trust anybody because of one thing," Bexten says. "People are just stunned, and they really haven't got over it yet."