Former Rochester man gets suspended sentence in forklift theft

Police said Jason Johnson, likely drove the equipment - similar to the one above - from Dover down Route 9 and then east on 125 to the Riviera Motel. (Forklift photo/Courtesy; Inset photo/Rochester Police)

ROCHESTER - A former Rochester man pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing a forklift from a Dover construction site and driving it to the Riviera Motel where he tried to sell it in March.

Jason A. Johnson, 42, whose last address was given as a Rochester transient, received a one-year sentence suspended except for 68 days which he had already served awaiting trial.

Johnson drove the Lull 1044 C-54 forklift from a Silver Street construction site down Route 9 and then east on Route 125 to the Gonic motel on either March 8 or 9, Dover police said shortly after the theft.

A week later on March 16 a Rochester police officer saw Johnson walking on Pine Street in Rochester, and after an investigation, it was learned that Johnson had driven the stolen forklift to the Riviera Motel and attempted to sell it to a resident there.

After it was determined Johnson had an active warrant stemming from an earlier criminal mischief charge, he was arrested, held on $2,500 cash bail and taken to the Strafford County Jail.

He was later arrested at the jail for allegedly receiving stolen property in connection with the forklift theft.

Johnson, who formerly lived on Lighthouse Lane in East Rochester, was arrested in June 2016 by Rochester Police, who charged him with possession of controlled drugs, falsifying physical evidence, resisting arrest and criminal threatening.

In December 2014 Johnson was arrested for alleged possession of crack cocaine.