After a two-day trial last week, a district court jury acquit- ted Dan Johnson of Boulder of charges of felony assault with a weapon and partner/family member assault, a misdemeanor. It took the jury barely over an hour to reach its verdict. Shortly before announcing it had a verdict, the jury asked Judge Luke Berger to define “reasonable apprehension.”
With the agreement of attorneys on both sides, Berger provided definitions from Black’s Law Dictionary. Johnson was arrested in October after an evening of dining and drinking at the home of his ex-wife. Both sides agreed that they argued but she said he could sleep on her couch because he had been drinking. She told law enforcement later he forced his way into her locked bedroom, where she greeted him with a gun and that he wrestled away from her and hit her in the face with it before driving away.
When officers responded they met his vehicle and he told them the couple had argued after she became angry over texts with other women she read from his phone. He admitted picking the lock to the bedroom but said he was only defending himself when he took the gun away and accidentally “bopped” her on the head while sitting atop her to get the gun.
At the time he was stopped, he also reportedly told officers, “I’ll tell you right now, I probably shouldn’t be driving.” Both Johnson and his ex-wife took the stand during the trial. She told jurors she pointed the gun at the floor, not at him, and he came toward her, causing reasonable apprehension. The defense argued, however, that she is a trained soldier who consciously decided not to chamber a round, who failed to call law enforcement when she claimed she was fearful, and pursued Johnson after the gun was in his control.
Both Johnson and his ex-wife after in the Montana Army National Guard. Johnson was originally charged with driving under the influence in addition, but that charge was dropped by prosecutors prior to trial. His blood-alcohol level tested just below the legal limit at .079, they said. When the jury announced its not guilty verdicts, Johnson and supporters were visibly moved to tears. The ex-wife, who was also in the courtroom to hear the verdict, did not visibly react.
