A judge on Monday ordered Donald M. Johnson, who pleaded guilty to securities fraud that left multiple victims in its wake for over a decade, to pay $50,000 bond as a condition of his release from the Porter County Jail, where he has been since late October following a late restitution payment and fresh charges of obstruction of justice.

The money will go toward the $604,500 restitution Johnson, 60, of Porter, must pay to his victims.

Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer said the money must be paid to the Porter County Clerk’s Office before Johnson’s release. “Trust, but verify,” he said.

When the hearing began, Clymer first weighed in on the complications Johnson’s motion for a change of judge created. “Do I have jurisdiction to sit as judge, or do I wait for the Court of Appeals to rule?” he pondered. He said if he granted the motion for a change of judge, Johnson would have to sit in jail.

“I don’t think you want to stay in jail, but those are the motions you filed,” he told Johnson. “In the meantime, it’s not fair to Mr. Johnson to make him sit in jail if he’s filed pro se.”

Clymer continued as judge, moving on to issues concerning both sides.

Because Johnson allegedly hid from police when they came to arrest him in October, Special Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Rooda requested an ankle monitor also be a condition of release, saying he was a flight risk.

“I don’t think an ankle monitor is necessary,” Clymer said, citing it as a possible unnecessary expense. “I’d rather see the money that would go to an ankle monitor go to the victims.”

However, he did find it necessary to bar Johnson from creating any new LLC, LLP or any other company without advising his probation officer. “It makes Mr. Johnson less accountable for the money he makes,” Clymer said of allowing him to make income under such designations.

He also denied the request of Johnson’s defense attorney Mitch Peters to allow a delay of the $5,000 October restitution payment to November because of property taxes coming due in September. Peters said the taxes are due on properties Johnson plans to rehab to sell to pay his restitution from the profits.

Clymer confirmed that was a sound plan. “There’s nothing that prohibits you from selling off property and paying it (the remaining restitution) as soon as possible,” he said. As it stands now, it will take Johnson 100 months of $5,000 payments to pay his debt.

Johnson was initially charged in Porter Superior Court in March 2014 with 14 counts related to securities fraud, class C felonies at the time. Two months later, he was charged with one count of forgery, also a class C felony, and two counts of theft, class D felonies, in a related case.

The allegations date back to 2007 and include multiple victims who allege the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate investments when they did not get the returns they were promised by Johnson, nor a return of their initial investments. Two of Johnson’s previous attorneys were successful in petitioning the Indiana Court of Appeals to throw out two other counts.

In a plea deal, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of broker-dealer registration violation, a class C felony, in exchange for the 14 securities fraud counts being dismissed. A new criminal obstruction of justice charge, a level 6 felony, was added to his docket during his Oct. 24 arrest at his parents’ home in rural Porter County.

A status hearing on the obstruction of justice charge, Johnson’s motion to dismiss it, and a petition to revoke probation will be held at 9 a.m. Oct. 27.

Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.