A second woman says she was attacked by the at one of Denver’s homeless shelters, according to a new lawsuit.
The woman, identified as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit, which was filed late last week, says she was assaulted by Billy Johnson the day before the other incident, in which Johnson, then 43, was accused of forcing another woman into a room and sexually assaulting her in March 2025. Jane Doe says Johnson had tried to pull her into his car during a sexual assault in the shelter’s parking lot.
She was an employee at the shelter, where Johnson worked as a supervisor despite having serious criminal convictions in his past, including kidnapping and sexual assault. In the other assault, media reports at the time said the woman who accused Johnson of forcing her into a room was staying at the shelter.
The lawsuit names the Salvation Army as a defendant and alleges that multiple Salvation Army employees either saw the earlier assault at 4040 Quebec St. or knew “something was seriously wrong.”
“Instead of receiving any meaningful assistance, plaintiff was left alone to resist the attack and ultimately escape before returning inside the shelter in a state of shock, trembling, and acute distress,” the lawsuit says. “Once home, plaintiff became physically ill and vomited repeatedly, overwhelmed by fear, shock, and confusion.”
Johnson had asked the woman to step outside for a “work-related matter” during an overnight shift, the lawsuit says, and then he sexually assaulted and restrained her, attempting to “pull her into his vehicle.” The incident was recorded by a nearby surveillance camera, according to the suit. No one from the Salvation Army contacted law enforcement or responded to the attack in any way that night or the following day, even though one of the woman’s co-workers tried to report the assault, the lawsuit says.
Representatives of Bachus & Schanker, the law firm that filed the suit Friday in Denver District Court, didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Denver District Attorney’s Office confirmed that prosecutors had added additional charges against Johnson for the earlier attack on the shelter worker.
Johnson now faces two counts of kidnapping, four of sexual assault, one of sexual contact and four others of assault. His case is set for a jury trial in January.
A spokesperson for the Salvation Army didn’t respond to a request for comment about the allegations Wednesday. But in a previous statement, the nonprofit emphasized that Johnson had passed its background check.
The Salvation Army no longer operates the city-owned shelter, a former hotel known as The Aspen, after the city awarded the contract to another provider, Urban Alchemy, for 2026. The shelter has been one of several used for Mayor Mike Johnston’s All In Mile High homelessness initiative.
The lawsuit says Jane Doe returned to work the day after the assault out of fear of losing her job. Johnson was still at the shelter, and and was later arrested and charged in the assault. Johnson later according to 9News.
The lawsuit alleges that the Salvation Army was negligent in hiring Johnson and that the second attack could have been prevented if the nonprofit had responded to the first one appropriately.
“(The Salvation Army) failed to conduct its own Colorado Bureau of Investigation background check, which would have cost approximately $6 and would have revealed a documented history of multiple convictions for violent offenses, including a conviction for felony kidnapping and sexual assault resulting in a 24-year prison sentence,” according to the lawsuit.
The organization also ignored a nine-year gap in Johnson’s resume, according to the lawsuit.
The nonprofit should have had a heightened sense of responsibility to protect the employee because she was working in an overnight shelter and serving a vulnerable population, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit asks the court to award the plaintiff compensation for all the damage caused by the incident.
The Salvation Army stopped operating several city shelters after a new bid process last year. The Denver City Council had raised questions about incidents at the shelters, including the other sexual assault, amid concerns that the nonprofit couldn’t adequately manage the facilities.
The organization continues to operate the Crossroads Center, the Labuth Family Center, the Connection Center and the Harbor Light Center.
Staff writer Shelly Bradbury contributed to this story.
