Michael Johnson found guilty of sex trafficking, prostitution charges by federal jury in Central Islip

A federal jury found a Delaware man guilty Friday of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, the trafficking of two women, and interstate prostitution in the first jury verdict resulting from the investigation that shuttered the infamous Sayville Motor Lodge in 2022.

The jury of seven women and five men reached a split verdict to convict Michael Johnson on four charges, acquitting him of one charge of sex trafficking, after more than two full days of deliberations before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert at the Eastern District courthouse in Central Islip.

Johnson, 36, of Selbyville, Delaware, was indicted in the sex trafficking conspiracy along with another alleged trafficker and the motel’s owners and staff in November 2022 when prosecutors announced an investigation revealed motel owners Narendarakuma and Shardaben Dadarwala profited off prostitution and narcotics activity and routinely warned guests engaged in illicit activity of a police presence on their property.

"Today’s verdict holds the defendant accountable for all of the cruelty and violence to women caused by his depraved sex trafficking," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement. "Johnson and his co-conspirators exhibited utter disregard for the human lives they destroyed by profiting off the backs of vulnerable women. It is my hope that Johnson’s conviction brings some measure of comfort to his victims, including those who bravely testified at the trial."

Johnson faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years up to life in federal prison when he is sentenced March 13, 2026.

 Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said in a statement that Friday’s verdict "serves as a warning to anyone who seeks to manipulate or abuse others."

"Justice will find you," Catalina said. 

Johnson, who previously lived in Wyandanch, was portrayed at trial as a convicted drug dealer who arranged for highly addicted customers to stay in rooms at the motel, where he scheduled dates with men who paid for sex with the women and kept the proceeds for himself. The charges at trial related to three women, two of whom testified along with two other Suffolk County women who said Johnson also sold them for sex at Suffolk hotels and motels.

The jury ultimately convicted Johnson of charges related to two of the alleged victims, acquitting him of the trafficking charge related to a woman identified as Kristina in the indictment.

 "I needed him. I needed what he had," Kristina said when she took the stand at trial Oct. 22.

The former Suffolk County resident said she was broke, homeless and highly addicted to crack cocaine and heroin sold to her by Johnson when she first ran drugs and guns for him to support her habit. She began to stay with him at a room in Sayville, where she said he used a gun during rough sex with her and by early November 2018 was selling her to other men.

"I was his [expletive]," Kristina said. "I was his dog." 

Kristina said she left Johnson after he was arrested later in November 2018 when Suffolk police raided their room at the Sayville Motor Lodge.

Defense attorney Gary Kaufman, of Manhattan, noted during closing arguments Monday that Johnson was not charged with trafficking in that case but was convicted on gun and drug charges. The defense maintained that Johnson was simply a drug dealer who sold to prostitutes and was not their pimp.

Kaufman referenced testimony from a Suffolk police detective who said investigators secured video surveillance evidence from the motel for the drug case but did not present similar evidence in the trafficking case.

"Why hasn’t the government shown [the surveillance video] to you?" Kaufman asked the jury during closing arguments. "That’s because there is nothing to see."

Kaufman and co-counsel Nicholas Hine, of Brooklyn, declined to comment outside of court.

As deliberations lingered for nearly as long as witness testimony, which ended Tuesday morning after three full days last week, the jury asked Seybert for most of the testimony transcripts and exhibits in the case. It also requested clarification related to "force," one of the four elements the prosecution must prove to secure a federal sex trafficking conviction.

Each of the four women who testified to being trafficked by Johnson shared similar stories of addiction and desperation, a need to score drugs at any cost to avoid becoming "dopesick."

"Sweating, freezing, diarrhea, restless legs ... it’s horrible," testified Dawn, whom Johnson was convicted of trafficking from 2017 to 2018.

One witness described the feeling of being dopesick as "the flu times 10." Times 20, said another.

 The prosecution, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samantha Alessi, Catherine Mirabile and Anthony Bagnuolo, said Johnson preyed on women with unstable home lives, no income or no car. The three days of trial testimony, which included statements from a total of seven women who engaged in sex work and knew Johnson, suggested he often withheld drugs from women to keep them desperate and working for him.

"But these women were not really working for him," Alessi said during closing arguments. "When you work for someone you get a paycheck."

 Testimony about the third victim, identified in the indictment as Ashley, came from a woman named Samantha, who stayed at the motel for more than seven years.

Samantha testified under a cooperation agreement related to a federal indictment on charges of distributing fentanyl. She told the jury Johnson brought Ashley to the Sayville Motor Lodge from Delaware on two occasions in 2021, after he was released from custody following his drug and weapons conviction. Samantha told the jury that Johnson had her help him traffic the Delaware woman. Prosecutors shared evidence of text messages, voice memos, social media posts and online advertisements to secure the conviction.

In one message, Johnson told Samantha to give "ole girl" a short break between dates.

Samantha testified the Dadarwalas allowed prostitution on premises and treated the women "like family." 

Alessi, during closing arguments Tuesday, called the Sayville Motor Lodge a "no-tell motel."

The Town of Islip shut down the motel following a federal raid in November 2022. The property was sold for $2 million as part of the federal case in October 2023 and is slated for redevelopment by an unrelated company, court records show.

Narendarakuma Dadarwala, 78, and Shardaben Dadarwala, 71, pleaded guilty of sex trafficking conspiracy along with former manager Ashokbhai Patel, 61. The couple's son, Jigar Dadarwala, 47, who lived at the motel, and alleged trafficker Timothy Bullen, 38, of Bay Shore, also were charged in the indictment and have not yet gone to trial.

Bullen, who was described as the main pimp operating out of the motel during Johnson’s trial, is scheduled to be evaluated next week for competency to stand trial.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.