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A Level 2 sex offender who was convicted of raping 7 and 8-year-old girls has been sentenced to prison after the feds busted him for child pornography.
Billerica man Eric Johnson, 51, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Thursday, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Level 2 sex offender — who was convicted in 1992 for aggravated felonious sexual assault of a child under 13 for raping two girls in New Hampshire — was caught possessing more than 5,000 files of child sexual abuse material.
Children’s clothing, mutilated dolls and diapers were also found at his home.
“Mr. Johnson is an extremely dangerous individual who has repeatedly demonstrated his predatory interest in children,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy. “He belongs in prison for a long time.
“The victims of child pornography are not abstractions or objects – they are real kids who experienced sexual exploitation in order for these pictures or images to be distributed and possessed,” Levy added. “Although today’s sentence cannot erase the ongoing pain endured by the victims from their traumatic abuse, the message about the severe consequences of possessing child pornography should be crystal clear.”
In early 2022, Johnson was identified as a user of a peer-to-peer internet network downloading child sexual abuse material. Police searches of his home resulted in the recovery of 25 electronic devices, including a laptop, hard drives and other electronic devices.
Multiple hard drives were found hidden next to Johnson’s bed — as well as hidden inside Johnson’s basement ceiling, shelves, cabinets, and in an ammunition can located in a crawl space at the residence. The laptop at the time was running a program to delete files from a hard drive, and was about 56% complete before being disabled by a forensic examiner.
Police also found two children’s backpacks from under his bed that contained various children’s clothing, including: bathing suits and a nightgown; a bag of children’s costumes; children’s diapers; and at least three child-sized dolls. What appeared to be bodily fluids were found in at least two of the dolls, police said.
A forensic exam revealed more than 5,000 files depicting child pornography on seven of the devices, including images and video files depicting the sexual abuse and rape of minor victims as young as infants and toddlers.
Many other disturbing items were also located on the devices, including images and videos of bestiality, photos of women’s deceased bodies, as well as videos of Johnson engaging in sexual acts with dolls.
“This lifetime sex offender admitted to amassing thousands of images of babies, toddlers, and children suffering horrific sexual abuse, and today’s sentence reflects the severity and depravity of his crime,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division.
“Those photos and videos represent unimaginable pain forced upon utterly vulnerable victims, some too young to walk or talk,” Cohen added. “It’s cases like this that drive the FBI and our partners, as we work to protect the children in our communities from predators like Eric Johnson.”
In addition to the 10 years in prison, Johnson was sentenced to five years of supervised release. Johnson was ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture in the amount of $38,000.
Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography earlier this year. He has remained in federal custody since his arrest in February 2022.
Local News
New Hampshire is leading an effort from 25 states to challenge a Massachusetts gun law, and this month, they’re taking it to the Supreme Court.
The centerpiece of the argument is the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H., which reaches across state lines into Tyngsborough. If shoppers park on the south side of the mall’s parking lot, they might end up crossing state lines during a visit.
The attorneys general of New Hampshire and 24 other Republican-led states say this poses a potential problem for firearm holders. A New Hampshire resident who is legally carrying a firearm on their home state’s side of the parking lot may inadvertently be breaking the law when they cross the lot into Massachusetts, where it is illegal to carry without a permit.
Joining New Hampshire are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming, who are calling the arrangement unconstitutional. The states have rallied behind Phillip Marquis of Rochester, N.H., to ask the Supreme Court to protect out-of-state residents from Massachusetts’ firearms regulations.
“The geography of the mall is such that a New Hampshire resident might find themselves in Massachusetts if she parks on the south side of the parking lot or visits Buffalo Wild Wings,” reads a brief from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to the Supreme Court. “If that person is carrying a firearm without a Massachusetts license — which would be constitutionally protected activity in most of the mall—that person risks being charged as a felon and facing mandatory incarceration in Massachusetts.”
The trouble began for Marquis in 2022 when he was in a car accident in Massachusetts, according to the brief. When police arrived, he informed them that he had a pistol on him and was subsequently charged with carrying a firearm without a license.
Marquis previously sued the Commonwealth for the burdens that Massachusetts’ firearms permit law creates on out-of-state visitors, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied his claims. They ruled in March that the state’s nonresident firearms licensing laws were constitutional, according to court documents.
Claiming that the Massachusetts court denied him his Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights, Marquis has petitioned the Supreme Court to federally overrule that court’s decision. In his petition, Marquis invoked New York State Rifle & Police Association, Inc. v. Bruen, where the court established that state firearms restrictions must be covered by the Second Amendment or adhere to historical firearms regulations.
Using Bruen, Marquis and the Republican attorneys general supporting him are aiming to prove that there is no justification for applying Massachusetts’ firearms restrictions to out-of-state residents and that to do so would be unconstitutional. However, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court found the law constitutional even under Bruen because it intends to prevent dangerous people from obtaining firearms, just as historical regulations have done.
“To the extent that the Commonwealth restricts the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms within its borders, the justification for so doing is credible, individualized evidence that the person in question would pose a danger if armed,” the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision read. “Both case law and the historical record unequivocally indicate that this justification is consistent with ‘the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.’”
It’s not immediately clear if the Supreme Court will respond to Marquis’ appeal or when it will make any kind of decision, but lower courts are at something of a crossroads with how and when to apply Bruen to gun possession cases. As such, they are looking to the Supreme Court for a more definitive answer.
Since the proof of historical context that Bruen requires has led to some uncertainty, any ruling that these lower courts make is likely to amount to a partisan decision. However, if the Supreme Court provides more substantive clarity in a response to Marquis, these lower courts just might find the answer they are seeking.
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Massachusetts State Lottery players won two $100,000 prizes Friday from the day’s “Mass Cash” drawings.
The winning tickets were sold at the Roslindale Food Mart on Washington Street and McSheffrey’s of the South End convenience store (with Mobil gas) on Main Street in Woburn.
Mass Cash drawings happen twice daily, at 2 p.m. and at 9 p.m. It costs just $1 to play.
Overall, at least 625 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including 6 in Springfield, 22 in Worcester and 14 in Boston.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
The two largest lottery prizes won so far in 2025 were each worth $15 million. One of the prizes was from a winning “Diamond Deluxe” scratch ticket sold in Holyoke, and the other was from a “300X” scratch ticket sold on Cape Cod.
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