On Thursday, Lowndes County Superior Court Judge Richard Porter ordered the parents of Kendrick Johnson, the high school student found dead inside of a rolled up wresting mat, to pay the legal fees of the brothers they alleged killed their son as well as the local officials they accused of covering for them.
On January 11, 2013, Johnson’s body was found inside a rolled up wresting mat of the Lowndes High School gymnasium in Valdosta, Georgia. The preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded the death was the result of positional asphyxia (presumably from being stuck in the mat after reaching for a pair of sneakers). But a second autopsy performed by a private pathologist at the request of Johnson’s parents determined the teen’s death was the result of blunt force trauma.
This discovery kicked off a firestorm of controversy as Kenneth and Jackie Johnson contended that their son’s death was no accident, an that he was in fact killed. The couple went on to file a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit alleging the Lowndes County sheriff, school superintendent and an FBI agent conspired to cover up Johnson’s murder by making his death look like an accident.
After a nearly three-year investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that there was “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that someone or some group of people willfully violated Kendrick Johnson’s civil rights or committed any other prosecutable federal crime.”
“I’m satisfied with the ruling and looking forward to our counterclaim against the Johnsons,” Karen Bell, Brian and Branden’s mother, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday. That countersuit, alleging libel and slander, seeks $1 million in damages.
