HOUSTON -- Former boxing champion Reggie Johnson has been indicted on theft charges, accused of receiving more than $120,000 in grant money for youth boxing camps that never took place. The indictment against Johnson, a middleweight and light heavyweight champion in the 1990s, is the second case involving money funnelled from the Red Cross to youth enrichment camps in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a Harris County prosecutor said. Johnson is charged with theft of more than $100,000, a second-degree felony. Last week, a Harris County grand jury indicted two Houston police officers on charges alleging they billed the Red Cross more than $166,000 last summer to operate a two-week basketball camp that lasted only two days. Assistant District Attorney Terese Buess said the Houston Area Urban League is a link in the two cases. Buess said the Urban League received more than $1 million from the Red Cross to distribute for the agency's 2007 summer Youth Enrichment Action Programs. Seven other vendors were paid from the grant, but Buess would not identify them. Buess said Johnson was supposed to put on a series of boxing camps last summer involving more than 40 children. Johnson couldn't be reached for comment, and the DA's office did not have the name of his attorney. A message left with the Houston Urban League was not immediately returned. If it's true, he's a scumbag.
