Former Springfield Cop Sentenced To Federal Prison For Fraud:

A former Springfield police officer who opened three credit cards and a Pay Pal account in his ex-wife's name was sentenced to fifteen months in federal prison without the possibility of parole.

Charles Edward Johnson, 45, was also ordered to pay $5,218 in restitution, according to a news release from United States Attorney John Wood.

Johnson used his ex-wife's identity to open the credit card account with Capital One, as well as the Pay Pal account. He used the fraudulent accounts to buy stuff over the Internet in his ex-wife's name and shipped to his home from November 2003 to Aug 31, 2005.

In order to keep the ruse ongoing, Johnson would make the minimum payments on the cards...eventually he was unable to keep up with the payments.

On Sept. 4, 2008, Johnson was convicted at trial of mail fraud and credit card fraud.

Johnson’s attorney Dee Wampler has asked U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr to sentence his client to probation for the crimes.

During the trial Judge Richard Dorr found Johnson had lied during testimony and felt a stiffer sentence was warranted, according to Wampler.

Wampler said Johnson had fallen on hard times.“He paid thousands of dollars toward the credit cards, but he fell behind,” Wampler said.

Wampler also noted that Johnson is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps who served in Iraq and Kuwait.