Rick Johnson, ex-Michigan House speaker, faces up to a decade in prison for taking bribes

Grand Rapids — Former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson faces up to 10 years behind bars after pleading guilty Tuesday to accepting bribes as he led a state board with the power to decide which businesses got into the burgeoning medical marijuana market first.

Johnson, 70, a Republican from LeRoy, became the second person to admit criminal wrongdoing in federal court as part of a wide-ranging and ongoing investigation into how money and lobbyists swayed marijuana policy decisions in Lansing. On Friday, businessman John Dawood Dalaly of Oakland County pleaded guilty to bribing Johnson, who chaired the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board.

Other than submitting his plea, Johnson said little during a 50-minute hearing in federal court in Grand Rapids before Magistrate Judge Phillip Green. U.S. Attorney Mark Totten sat in the fourth row of the courtroom to watch the proceeding.

"This investigation is ongoing, which is to say we may or may not bring future charges in this case," Totten told reporters afterward. "But what I can say is that the investigation and prosecution of public corruption is a priority for our office. We will follow it wherever we find it."

Johnson and his attorney, Nick Dondzila, declined to answer questions as they left the courthouse in downtown Grand Rapids.

"We will not be making any statements at this time," Dondzila said.

On March 30, Johnson signed a plea agreement, vowing to cooperate with federal prosecutors as their probe continues. He is the most prominent figure charged so far in the largest public corruption case in the state capital in the last 30 years.

Johnson faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. He was released Tuesday on an unsecured bond of $25,000.

While leading the licensing board from May 2017 through April 2019, Johnson received at least $110,200 in cash payments and other benefits from businesses seeking medical marijuana licenses and lobbyists who represented them, according to prosecutors and his plea agreement.

Johnson "understood that those payments were bribes" meant to obtain internal information about the board's processes and ultimately licenses, according to the plea agreement he signed.

In the deal, federal prosecutors agreed not to bring charges against Jan Johnson, Rick Johnson's wife.

On Friday, Dalaly, who was working with a company called Pharmaco, admitted that Rick Johnson directed him to hire Jan Johnson as a consultant to work on his application to the board and Dalaly went on to pay her $4,000 a month.

The Detroit News first reported that Rick Johnson was under investigation on Feb. 1.

Johnson, a farmer by trade, was the speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 through 2004. He went on to be a partner in the Lansing multi-client lobbying firm Dodak Johnson.

He eventually became involved in drafting a 2016 law that set regulations for the medical marijuana industry and created the five-member licensing board. Then-Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, a Republican from Grand Haven, nominated Johnson to serve on the board. And then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, appointed Johnson to the position on May 26, 2017.

In a Tuesday interview, Dick Posthumus, who was Snyder's chief of staff, acknowledged there were concerns about Johnson's background as a lobbyist before the appointment, so the Michigan State Police conducted a "deep dive" investigation into him. The review raised no issues, Posthumus said.

“The state police cleared him, so the governor made the appointment," Posthumus said.

Term limits have spurred Michigan lawmakers to move in and out of positions so quickly that some have become less careful, added Posthumus, a former state senator and lieutenant governor under Republican Gov. John Engler.

The Medical Marihuana Licensing Board approved about 150 licenses for businesses in growing, processing, selling, transporting and testing from June 2018 through April 2019, when its last meeting was held.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, disbanded the board in the spring of 2019 after taking office.

On April 6, Totten, who previously worked in Whitmer's office as her chief legal counsel, and the FBI announced charges against Johnson, Dalaly and two lobbyists in what has become the largest public corruption scandal in the state’s capital in 30 years.

More:Businessman pleads guilty to bribing Michigan medical marijuana licensing board chairman

The lobbyists, Vincent Brown of Royal Oak and Brian Pierce of Midland, have also signed plea agreements and are expected to plead guilty in court later this week.

Brown and Pierce, who worked as legislative staffers before becoming lobbyists, gave at least $42,000 in cash payments and other benefits to Johnson through their lobbying firms and another business entity, according to their plea deals.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Robert Snell contributed.