A former Chicago police commander once considered a rising star in the department was spared federal prison Tuesdayfor pocketing more than $360,000 in his dead mother’s Social Security payments over the course of more than 23 years.

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah sentenced Kenneth Johnson to two years of probation and ordered him to serve the first six months in community confinement, likely at a Salvation Army facility in Chicago.

The sentence capped a stunning downfall for Johnson, a 32-year veteran of the force who had earned praise for overseeing major reductions in violence in the city’s Englewood community but wound up retiring abruptly before charges were filed last year.

It also was the latest embarrassment for a Police Department besieged recently by scandal. On Monday, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson — who often touted Kenneth Johnson’s accomplishments — was fired by Mayor Lori Lightfoot for allegedly lying to her and the public about an incident in October in which he was found asleep in his running vehicle after having drinks at a downtown bar.

In handing down the sentence Tuesday, Shah said Kenneth Johnson’s decision to betray the public’s trust was “infuriating.”

“How many times (as a police commander) did you plead with people to come forward and accept responsibly for something?” Shah said. “Yet all that while, there was a crime being committed that you knew all about, and you did nothing to stop it.”

In addition to the period of probation, Johnson will have to pay back all of the money he stole, Shah said.

As the judge spoke, Johnson stood at the lectern with his arms folded, dressed in a dark suit and wearing glasses and a graying beard.

Minutes earlier, Johnson had issued a lengthy apology to the community, the Police Department and his family and friends, saying he couldn’t even bring himself to ask for support at his sentencing because he was so ashamed.

“I stand alone today because I am alone in this,” Johnson said in a firm voice. “I made the decision. I had no right to do that.”

Johnson, 55, pleaded guilty in May to theft of government funds, admitting he failed to notify the Social Security Administration when his mother died in May 1994 and instead continued to cash her monthly checks. In all, Johnson stole a total of $363,064 from the time of his mother’s death to November 2017 when the scheme was uncovered.

In seeking up to two years in prison, federal prosecutors revealed in a recent court filing that Johnson withdrew some of the stolen funds from an ATM while at work at the Englewood District police station.

In 2016, Johnson used stolen funds to pay for a hotel room in Phoenix, according to the filing. Two months later, he used other Social Security payments for round-trip airfare to Los Angeles to attend a “crime-fighters conference,” prosecutors said.

“In stealing from Social Security, Johnson betrayed the public trust and let down thousands of Chicago police officers who risk their lives every day protecting the public from crime," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Jodrey wrote.

Essentially, Jodrey said, Johnson committed a federal crime "every single month” for most of his career.

The scheme was eventually unraveled by a watchdog arm of the Social Security Administration that red-flagged Johnson’s mother’s account in 2017 because she had not used Medicare, even though at that point she would have been 96, according to the prosecution filing.

After sending a letter to the woman’s last-known address and receiving no response, the payments were stopped and the matter referred to the agency’s inspector general, who determined Johnson’s mother had, in fact, died at age 72.

Johnson’s attorney, Michael Clancy, asked for probation, noting in his own filing that Johnson quickly admitted guilt, had no prior criminal record and was not a risk for future criminal activity.

Clancy said Johnson was wracked by guilt over taking the money but was afraid to come forward because of his status as a police officer. Those feelings only intensified as he rose quickly through the ranks, leading to two failed marriages as well as health and financial problems, Clancy said.

In the end, Johnson was almost happy to get caught, according to Clancy.

“He was a special, special police officer, and he did it all knowing that he had this skeleton in his closet,” Clancy said. “It almost killed him.”

Jodrey, however, said that Johnson’s decision “wasn’t that complicated,” noting that if he was so concerned about being found out, he could have chosen to simply let the money accumulate in the account without spending it.

Jodrey also warned that a sentence of probation would send the wrong message to others thinking of stealing from government programs.

“That’s not a deterrent. That’s more like a court-approved, interest-free loan, courtesy of the American taxpayer," Jodrey said.

Johnson joined the Police Department in 1986 and took over as Englewood’s commander in 2016. His twin brother, Kevin Johnson, was promoted last year to deputy chief, records show.

Since the felony conviction was not related to his duties, Johnson will keep his police pension, Clancy said. The federal government, however, will take a percentage of every check until the money stolen by Johnson has been repaid to Social Security, he said.

In a July 2018 interview just four months before he was charged, then-Cmdr. Johnson told the Tribune that some of his success in violence reduction could be credited to inroads his officers had made with outreach workers and citizens in the communities who long distrusted the police.

But he acknowledged then that fully winning over the community would take a lot more time.

“This trust, it’s not an easily won thing,” he said at the time. “Trust is easily broken and very difficult to win.”

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