Former Prince George's County Council member Leslie Johnson has reported to a federal prison in West Virginia to begin serving a sentence of one year and one day after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.
Johnson was sentenced December 9 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit witness and evidence tampering. Johnson and her husband, former county executive Jack Johnson, were arrested in November of 2010 as part of a federal probe into corruption in Prince George's County. Prosecutors said that Jack Johnson and four council members had solicited bribes and favors while deliberating on an annual lease for a county agency.
Most famously, a phone conversation between the couple was caught on tape by federal investigators. During the course of the conversation, Jack Johnson instructed his wife to hide a $100,000 check and $80,000 in cash. The check was flushed down the toilet, while Leslie Johnson was arrested with the cash stuffed in her underwear.
Johnson will serve her sentence at Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia. Alderson is described as a minimum security prison for female offenders and is nicknamed "Camp Cupcake." Its most notable inmates have included Martha Stewart; Sara Jane Moore and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, both would-be assassins of former President Gerald Ford; blues singer Billie Holiday; and Axis radio propagandist Tokyo Rose.
