Ex-top cop's son charged in house-stealing scheme

STEVEN JOHNSON, son of former Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, was charged Wednesday along with three other people in a house-stealing scheme that involved more than 20 properties, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Johnson, 49; Zachary Stokes, 55; Oscar Ketter, 42; and Elhadi Ibrahim, 48, are charged with criminal conspiracy, theft, forgery, tampering with public records and related offenses for allegedly forging documents that transferred ownership of 22 vacant properties into their names or fictitious names, the D.A. alleges.

In many of the cases - which involve properties in South, West and North Philadelphia - the four are accused of stealing the houses and then selling them to unknowing purchasers.

Stokes, Ketter and Ibrahim were arrested Wednesday. Johnson, of Vista Street near Torresdale Avenue, in Holmesburg, was not in custody.

A three-year investigation led to the charges filed Wednesday against Johnson and his three cohorts, according to the D.A. That investigation was sparked when homeowners contacted the D.A.'s office after receiving notices indicating that their deeds had been transferred.

"In each case of fraud, the lawful owner was unaware of the 'sale' of the property and did not sign the deed or give anyone the right to transfer title to the property," said a D.A.'s office statement released Wednesday.

In several of the cases, according to the statement, a notary's signature was forged and a counterfeit stamp was used on the documents.

Court dates for the four defendants have not been announced. Assistant District Attorney Yvonne Ruiz, of the office's Economic and Cyber Crimes Unit, is assigned to prosecute the case.

In a phone call with the Daily News on Wednesday, Sylvester Johnson declined to comment.

This isn't the younger Johnson's first brush with controversy - nor is it the first time his name has come up in a case involving possible improper transfer of property ownership in the city.

In 2005, then-sheriff John Green launched an internal investigation after the Daily News questioned the propriety of two Sheriff's Office employees' purchases of five properties from buyers who bought them at sheriff's sales.

The investigation was conducted by Steven Johnson, then the head of the Sheriff's Office Internal Affairs unit. Johnson eventually cleared the employees - husband and wife Darrell R. and Crystal Stewart - of wrongdoing.

In 2011, however, after interim sheriff Barbara Deeley took over the office, Crystal Stewart was fired from her job in the office and Darrell R. Stewart was transferred to another department.

Before that, when Johnson worked as a lieutenant in SEPTA's police department, he was suspended for using his SEPTA vehicle and cellphone for personal use. Johnson filed a racial-discrimination lawsuit against SEPTA, which he eventually lost.

It's unclear where Johnson now works, but city payroll records show that as of early 2006, he no longer was employed by the Sheriff's Office. The circumstances surrounding the end of his employment with the office are unclear.