Records Released in Deputy Slaying Case

Ruling against the defense, a Ventura County judge agreed Friday to let prosecutors have the military and prison records of Michael Raymond Johnson, who is accused of killing Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Aguirre Jr. last summer.

Superior Court Judge Steven Perren said he will temporarily hold onto Johnson’s records from a six-year state prison sentence the defendant served for robbery, assault and burglary charges.

Perren said he will expunge from the records any reference to confidential informants--as requested by the California attorney general’s office--and then release the bulk of the records next week to both prosecutors and Johnson’s attorneys.

But the judge refused to short-circuit defense motions to keep Johnson’s military, school, medical and prison records secret. Perren also released records showing that Johnson’s two years of service in the U.S. Army were marred by charges of AWOL and theft, and ended with a court-martial and an undesirable discharge.

Bound with a red ribbon and a gold seal, the inch-thick sheaf of records is topped by citations that Johnson received for the national Distinguished Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal and the Vietnam Combat Medal, which were issued to nearly every combat soldier in the Vietnam War.

But the records also tell of unauthorized absences Johnson took, ranging from a few hours to more than three days. For one two-day absence from his infantry unit in Vietnam during a year-long tour in 1967, Johnson was sentenced to one month’s hard labor and forfeited $192 of his pay.

In the course of his service, Johnson was busted from private E3 to private E1 at Fort Benning, Ga., the records show. And he was court-martialed there for going AWOL again, and for stealing a colonel’s tape recorder--acts that got him six months’ confinement at hard labor and a loss of $540 in pay.

Finally, after citations for public drinking, and an arrest and sentence of one year’s probation in civilian court for stealing gas from a tobacco truck in Columbus, Ga., Johnson was discharged in August 1968.

Johnson is to be tried Nov. 3 on charges that he shot Aguirre on July 17, 1996, in Meiners Oaks. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.