ADA attorney indicted by federal grand jury

For more than a decade, attorney Scott Norris Johnson has made it his business to sue thousands of small business owners around Lake Tahoe and up and down the state over alleged violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

Today he finds himself in hot water after a federal grand jury returned an indictment today against the Carmichael resident, charging him with three counts of making and subscribing a false tax return.

According to the indictment, Johnson owned and operated Disabled Access Prevents Injury Inc. (DAPI), a legal services corporation. First using DAPI, and later using a law firm, Johnson filed thousands of lawsuits in the Eastern District of California and elsewhere. Johnson named himself as the plaintiff in the lawsuits and made claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the California Disabled Persons Act, and the California Unruh Civil Rights Act.

Under the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, payments related to lawsuit settlements or awards are taxable unless they were paid on account of personal physical injury or physical sickness. Johnson, however, allegedly materially underreported the taxable income he received from lawsuit settlements and awards on his income tax returns for tax years 2012, 2013, and 2014. By understating his income on his tax returns, Johnson and DAPI paid little to no income tax for tax years 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Johnson became a familiar sight on both the south and north shores of Lake Tahoe when he sent letters to dozens of businesses, alerting them they weren't in compliance with ADA standards. Johnson, who is a quadriplegic, would tell the recipient to bring their properties up to code or give him proof the compliance was completed. He would then follow with letters demanding payment, from a few thousand dollars to over twenty thousand dollars.

If convicted, Johnson faces a maximum statutory penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the three counts.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine T. Lydon and Trial Attorney Tim Russo of the Tax Division are prosecuting the case.