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Substitute teacher arrested on sex charges

By Jason Miles - bio | email | Twitter | Facebook

LAKE CORMORANT, MS (WMC-TV) - Brothers Drake and Jacob Walton both play football for Lake Cormorant High School.

"Our boys have been through a tough year," their aunt, Angela Wright, said Monday.  "Their mother was killed in a car accident last December."

Wright credits the "kicking coach" at the school with being part of a strong support system.

"He's been a mentor and someone we've been proud to have in our lives," she said.

But DeSoto County Sheriff's investigators say 23 year-old Joey Johnson, technically classified as a substitute, had sex with more than one student.  So, they charged him Monday with Sexual Battery.

"I cannot believe he would hurt a young girl," said Wright.

The girls may have been above the age of consent in Mississippi, which is just 16.  But a state law prohibits authority figures, like teachers, from having sex with anyone under 18.  And friends say Johnson has quite a reputation with many young women.

"He's kind of like a ladies man or whatever," said Wright's friend, Drew Bader.

Bader came to the jail to visit Johnson and refuses to believe he'd knowingly break the law.

"That's not like him," Bader said.  "That doesn't sound anything like him at all."

Johnson's arrest comes less than a week after music teacher Tyler Bigham was charged with the same crime at another DeSoto County school.  Police say they caught him at Snowden Grove Park having sex with a 17 year-old student.

"Coach" Joey Johnson was arrested at his home Monday afternoon.  At last check, he was still behind bars on a $100,000 bond.  The school district says none of his alleged sexual encounters took place at school.

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