CORRECTS TO A PROBABLE SUICIDE INSTEAD OF COMMITTED SUICIDE FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, file photo, Kentucky State Rep. Republican Dan Johnson addresses the public from his church regarding... (Associated Press) 
 
 CORRECTS TO A PROBABLE SUICIDE INSTEAD OF COMMITTED SUICIDE FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, file photo, Kentucky State Rep. Republican Dan Johnson addresses the public from his church regarding sexual assault allegations in Louisville, Ky. Johnson died Wednesday night, Dec. 13, 2017. Bullitt... (Associated Press) 
 
 FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky lawmaker's resume included enough material for an award-winning memoir: He was a peacekeeper at the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, a White House chaplain to three presidents and a 9/11 first responder who gave last rites to hundreds of people at Ground Zero. 
 
 But Republican Dan Johnson's carefully crafted history crumbled this week following an extensively reported story from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. The story tore down his claims and portrayed him as a con man whose deceptions propped up his ministry of a church of outcasts in Louisville and hid a sinister secret: a sexual assault allegation from a 17-year-old girl. 
 
 Johnson denied it all, declaring his innocence from the pulpit of the church where he was the self-appointed "pope." By Wednesday night, he was dead, his body found on the side of a secluded road with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. 
 
 The death of the 57-year-old jolted Republican leaders, who were already struggling with a sexual harassment scandal that toppled the state's first GOP House speaker in nearly 100 years plus three other Republican committee chairmen. Most in the party had already turned their back on Johnson, calling for his resignation following the sexual assault allegation and his history of posting racist photos on Facebook that depicted President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys. 
 
 By Thursday, many were offering messages of sympathy while acknowledging Johnson's complex life. 
 
 "He was passionate about others, I saw it often yet he needed help himself," GOP state Rep. Jim DuPlessis, who sat beside Johnson on the House floor, posted on Twitter. 
 
 Johnson's wife, Rebecca Johnson, said her husband was the victim of a "high-tech lynching" and announced she would run to replace him in the Legislature. 
 
 Elected in 2016, he was part of a wave of Republican victories that gave the GOP a majority in the Kentucky House for the first time in nearly 100 years. But before that, he was the pastor of Heart of Fire Church in Louisville, which prided itself on welcoming "real people." 
 
 "It was a biker church, so there was lots of leather jackets, lots of long hair and people that if you ran into them on the street, you might have a different first impression," said David Adams, a political operative who worked with Johnson on his campaign. 
 
 On the church's website, Johnson claimed to have healed sick people during a visit to South America in 1991, including the incredible story of raising a woman from the dead. The miracles were detailed in a letter from David Fischer, pastor of a church in California. Fischer told the investigative reporting center that he did not witness those events and could not point the agency to anyone who had. 
 
 On his financial disclosure forms, Johnson listed his only source of income as workers compensation from the state of New York. He said that money was from injuries he sustained while working as a chaplain immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City. But the reporting center, after a seven-month effort, could find no evidence that Johnson was in New York that day. 
 
 In a Facebook message posted hours before his death, Johnson hinted that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder relating to what he witnessed in New York, details that he shared with friends through the years, including Republican state Sen. Dan Seum. 
 
 "He struggled with that. I know he did. The fact it was so horrific that he was involved in praying over these people," Seum said. "I believed him. I had no reason not to." 
 
 The sexual assault allegation came from Maranda Richmond, a former member of Johnson's church. Richmond told the reporting center she was spending the night at Johnson's house on New Year's Eve 2012 when she awoke several hours after midnight to find Johnson standing over her. She said he stuck his tongue in her mouth and put his hands down her pants and into her vagina. She said she begged him to stop and eventually he did. 
 
 The Associated Press does not generally identify victims who report sexual assault but is doing so because Richmond has gone public with her story. 
 
 Richmond's public comments match what she told police two years ago, according to police documents obtained by the reporting center. In 2013, police investigated the matter, including a secretly recorded phone call between Johnson and Richmond's father. But a detective later closed the case, saying Richmond refused to cooperate. Richmond denied that. 
 
 As a result of the center's reporting, the Louisville Metro Police Department re-opened its investigation. 
 
 Johnson held a news conference Tuesday at his church, denying the allegations with his wife by his side. He said he would not resign, calling the accusations part of a strategy to attack conservative Republicans nationwide. He saved his criticism for the media, saying he did not "want to blast this girl. I have compassion for her. I'm very sorrowful she is in this dark place in her life." 
 
 The reporting center interviewed people who were at the Rodney King riots and spoke with an expert on religious faith and the presidency. All of them said Johnson's claims were false. 
 
 He insisted it was all true. 
 
 "This whole piece was so outrageous. It was as though I had never lived or never done anything I had ever done," he told reporters. 
 
 At the end of the news conference, a reporter asked if he had ever raised anyone from the dead. Johnson stopped, turned to face the journalist and said, "God has," before walking out of the pulpit for the final time. ||||| Facebook / Facebook.com 
 
 State Rep. Dan Johnson committed suicide Wednesday evening, two days after the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting published accusations that he sexually assaulted a minor. 
 
 Johnson was a preacher from Mt. Washington in Bullitt County. He shot himself on a bridge over the Salt River, according to WDRB. 
 
 Johnson posted a suicide note on Facebook Wednesday evening calling the accusations false and telling conservatives to “take a stand.” 
 
 “AMERICA will not survive this type of judge and jury fake news,” Johnson wrote. “Only Three things I ask of you to do,if you love me is (1)blame no person,Satan is the accuser, so blame the Devil himself. (2) Forgive and Love everyone especially yourself .(3)most importantly LOVE GOD.” 
 
 
 
 The KyCIR investigation included an accusation from a 21-year-old woman that Johnson sexually assaulted her in the basement of his Fern Creek church in 2013. She was 17 at the time. 
 
 The Louisville Metro Police Department opened an inquiry, but detectives later closed the case, citing a lack of interest or assistance from the teen. She told KyCIR she never wanted the case abandoned and that detectives reopened the case months ago, following KyCIR’s inquiries. 
 
 KyCIR and WFPL are both part of Louisville Public Media. 
 
 Johnson denied the accusations, which he said were spawned by his political opponent, former Democratic Rep. Linda Belcher. 
 
 The Republican Party of Kentucky, as well as Republican and Democratic leaders in the statehouse quickly called for Johnson to resign Monday after the KyCIR story. 
 
 Louisville Metro Police confirmed on Tuesday they had reopened an investigation into Johnson over the 2013 assault allegations. 
 
 In a statement, Louisville Public Media President Michael Skoler expressed condolences for Johnson’s friends and family. 
 
 “All of us at Louisville Public Media are deeply sad to hear that State Representative Dan Johnson has died, apparently of suicide. We grieve for his family, friends, church community and constituents. Our Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting released a report on Johnson this week. Our aim, as always, is to provide the public with fact-based, unbiased reporting and hold public officials accountable for their actions. As part of our process, we reached out to Representative Johnson numerous times over the course of a seven-month investigation. He declined requests to talk about our findings.” 
 
 Statements of condolence poured out from lawmakers Wednesday evening. 
 
 “It is with great sadness that we have received confirmed reports of the passing of Rep. Dan Johnson this evening. Please keep his family in your prayers during this incredibly difficult time,” House Republican leaders said in a statement. 
 
 Saddened to hear of tonight’s death of KY Representative Dan Johnson…My heart breaks for his family tonight…These are heavy days in Frankfort and in America…May God indeed shed His grace on us all…We sure need it… — Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) December 14, 2017 
 
 Rep. Wesley Morgan, a Republican from Richmond, blamed the media and political parties for Johnson’s death. 
 
 Media, @KyDems and especially @KYGOP should be ashamed of itself. Republicans, you turned your back on an ally and forced a good man who was trying to do right by the people of Kentucky to suicide. All because he wasn’t ever your pick. You wanted him gone. Think about that. — Wesley Morgan (@WesleyMorganKY) December 14, 2017 
 
 Former Kentucky House Speaker Jeff Hoover, who resigned his seat recently after settling a sexual harassment lawsuit, also tweeted his condolences. 
 
 I am very sad over the passing of Rep. Dan Johnson. Over the past few weeks in some of the darkest days of my life, he reached out to me, encouraged me, and prayed for me. Prayers for his wife, children, grandchildren and all affected by this sad event. — Jeff Hoover (@KYHoover) December 14, 2017 
 
 This story was written by Ryland Barton of Kentucky Public Radio.
– "Dan is gone, but his story is far from over," says the widow of Dan Johnson, a Kentucky state lawmaker who killed himself Wednesday night after he was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. Rebecca Johnson says she plans to run for the Republican's House seat because "these high-tech lynchings based on lies and half-truths can't be allowed to win the day," the Louisville Courier Journal reports. A special election for the seat is expected in February. Authorities say the 57-year-old lawmaker shot himself in the head at a bridge in a remote area after leaving a Facebook post denying the accusation and saying "HEAVEN IS MY HOME," reports the New York Daily News. Johnson killed himself two days after the release of a Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting report that exposed the assault allegation, along with what it called a "web of lies" from Johnson, who proclaimed himself "pope" of the Heart of Fire Church, the AP reports. The center said that after a monthslong investigation, it could find no evidence to back up Johnson's claims that he set up a morgue and gave the last rites to hundreds of people at ground zero on 9/11, that he set up "safe zones" during the 1992 LA riots, that he was White House chaplain under three presidents—and that he once raised a woman from the dead. Executive Editor Stephen George says he is "shocked and saddened" by Johnson's death, but he stands by the story.