Examiner

The Pennsylvania politician accused of posing as a cop and raping a woman in southeast Baltimore committed suicide Monday in upstate New York, federal marshals said.

Michael L. Johnson, 40, the president of Penn Township’s Board of Commissioners and an ex-Pennsylvania state trooper, killed himself at about 10:30 a.m. in Cohoes, about 10 miles north of Albany, the marshals said in a statement.

Police were about to search a house in the first block of Mohawk Street, when Johnson left the building, saw the officers, and went back inside. Minutes later, the officers heard the shots, officers said.

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Johnson was charged in three rape cases — two in York, Pa., and one in Baltimore. In each case, Johnson posed as a police officer and threatened the women if they didn’t have sex with him, police said.

In the Baltimore case, Johnson allegedly picked up a 21-year-old woman Nov. 2 on the 100 block of Conkling Street. Posing as a police officer, Johnson ordered the woman into his van and told her she was under arrest for prostitution, according to charging documents.

He offered to let her go if she had sex with him, but the woman said she did not respond, the documents state.

Johnson raped her, offered to pay her and forced her from his vehicle, police said.