Billionaire Curt Johnson Has Pre-Trial Hearing Today

Curt Johnson, billionaire heir to the SC Johnson fortune, will have a pre-trial hearing on Fri., June 17. 

He is not expected to appear and his lawyers will probably confer with prosecutors for another status hearing without actually speaking in open court.

Johnson is accused of repeated sexual assault of the same child for having inappropriate contact with a now 15-year-old girl. According to the criminal complaint, Johnson touched and fondled the girl several times over a period of three or four years. At one point, he allegedly asked the girl to have sex with him, but she refused.

As a condition of his $500,000 cash bond, Johnson was ordered to not leave the state, and he surrendered his passport. Further, he was ordered to not have any contact with any minor female children. Johnson entered a "not guilty" plea in April and had a first status hearing on May 20.

Tracy Stier-Johnson and her children are moving to North Carolina. On May 6, a home sale of $3.4 million was recorded in a suburb of Charlotte, NC. In a letter from her attorney to Racine County District Attorney Michael Nieskes, Stier-Johnson says the stress from her husband's legal issues is prompting the move.

Johnson is the son of the late Samuel Johnson and was head of Sturtevant-based Diversey, Inc. until February. He stepped down, citing "personal reasons," and his sister, Helen Johnson-Leopold took the reins. 

On June 1, Diversey, Inc. officials announced the company was sold to Sealed Air, makers of Bubble Wrap, for $4.3 billion. Company leaders have no plans to move operations from Sturtevant.