Johnathon “John” Taylor, a Macon police officer who works for the La Plata Police Department, is caught in a court battle.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol detained Taylor on Wednesday following a comprehensive investigation by the Troop B Criminal Investigative Unit of the Patrol’s Division of Drugs and Crime Control.
The terrible odyssey began in February 2021 and July 2022, when the La Plata Police Department asked the Highway Patrol for assistance in investigating two different charges against Taylor involving the sexual assault of minor females.
Subsequent investigations showed a horrific pattern of abuse extending back to 2017, when Taylor reportedly sexually assaulted two minor girls in different locations throughout Macon County.
The Macon County Prosecuting Attorney designated a special prosecutor from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office to handle Taylor’s cases in order to maintain impartiality.
On Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office charged Taylor with seven counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, six counts of fourth-degree child molestation, one crime of second-degree statutory rape, and one count of patronizing prostitution.
Taylor is currently imprisoned without bond at the Randolph County Jail while awaiting legal proceedings. Despite the gravity of the charges made against him, the sheriff’s office has yet to issue a mugshot of the accused, leaving the public to wrestle with the gravity of the claims without a visual representation.
