Their son was found dead in a wrestling mat. They say it was a cover-up.
The parents of a Valdosta teenager found dead in a rolled-up wrestling mat have filed a lawsuit in Bibb County Superior Court alleging that their son’s death wasn’t accidental, as authorities ruled.
Instead, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson contend that authorities participated in a cover-up, committing violations of the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, according to the suit filed Friday.
The suit names 45 defendants, among them: several GBI employees, including a medical examiner and an investigator who live in Bibb County; the Lowndes County school district and its superintendent; the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and several employees, including a former sheriff; the city of Valdosta, its city manager and a former police chief; and several then-Lowndes County High School students.
Security cameras reportedly showed Kendrick Lamar Johnson as he entered the gym at Lowndes County High in 2013, but they did not record how he died. Students found his body the next day. A sheriff’s office investigation concluded that Johnson went into the rolled-up mat head-first to retrieve a pair of shoes found beneath his body.
A GBI autopsy determined that the 17-year-old died after becoming stuck upside down and was unable to breathe.
The Department of Justice issued a statement in June 2016 saying federal investigators didn’t find sufficient evidence to support criminal charges.
About a month ago, a judge dismissed a federal lawsuit that the Johnsons had filed, saying they had missed deadlines in filing court paperwork. The Johnsons were ordered to pay attorneys fees to those they accused of wrongdoing after dismissing a separate prior lawsuit.
Attempts to reach the Johnsons’ lawyer weren’t successful Monday.
Attorneys for the defendants who responded to a Telegraph request for comment said they had not seen the lawsuit.
A GBI spokeswoman declined comment.
According to the Bibb County lawsuit:
The Johnsons allege that their son was attacked by at least three students on Jan. 10, 2013, and suffered a fatal injury. They contend the students and others tried to hide their son’s body, failed to render aid to him and didn’t notify school authorities.
The school superintendent, then-sheriff and an FBI agent who is father of two of the alleged student attackers then devised a plan to cover up the “true cause of death” and involvement of those involved, Johnson’s parents allege.
Johnson’s parents contend the plan included rolling up the teen’s body in a gym mat so it would be discovered inside the Lowndes High School gym Jan. 11, 2013, by two of the superintendent’s daughters, who were students at the school.
They allege law enforcement failed to follow appropriate investigative procedures, that the coroner wasn’t notified until six hours after the body was discovered, and appropriate action wasn’t taken to preserve evidence contained in their son’s remains.
About six months after Kendrick Johnson’s death, his parents exhumed his body for a second autopsy, which they contend determined his death to have been caused by “blunt force trauma” from an injury “non-accidental in nature.”
The GBI rejected an offer to review the findings of the forensic pathologist who conducted the second exam, the Johnsons contend.
After Lowndes County deputies completed their investigation, the Johnsons requested access to the case file, including copies of surveillance images recorded at the school on Jan. 10, 2013, and Jan. 11, 2013. When the request was fulfilled months later, photos and “moving images” were withheld.
The Johnsons are asking a judge to order that the GBI examine tissue specimens collected during the second autopsy and consider the evidence based on “honest and professional judgment.”
They’re also seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.
Amy Leigh Womack: 478-744-4398, @awomackmacon
This story was originally published July 10, 2017 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Their son was found dead in a wrestling mat. They say it was a cover-up.."