Journey For Equal Justice In Valdosta, GA. The Death of Kendrick Johnson and Recent Judicial Complaints

(A note. Highlights in blue are embedded links to news sources.  Clicking on them opens the source in a new tab.)

Kenneth and Jackie Johnson with a photo of Kendrick.

It’s been a long journey for the parents of Kendrick Johnson.  In January 2013, the 17-year old’s body was found in a gym mat in the high school he attended.  Local authorities ruled the death an accident.  Kendrick’s parents hired a pathologist who found that Kendrick died of blunt force trauma.

To add insult to injury, all of Kendrick’s internal organs were missing, replaced with newspaper.

In April 2013, Kendrick’s parents Jackie, Kenneth Johnson, and 5 family members protested outside of the courthouse.   The protest was designed to pressure the local sheriff’s office to release the investigative file of Kendrick’s death.  They were arrested.  In January 2015, they were convicted of civil disobedience. Their sentence was suspended for 12-months as long as they didn’t get arrested for civil disobedience in the next year.

Judge Mark Mitchell allowed cameras in the courtroom during the trial.  He explains his order in the first 3 minutes of the below video.

 

In October 2013, federal prosecutors announced an investigation in Kendrick’s death.  

Former Suspect In The Death of Kendrick Johnson Charged With Assault

On January 13, 2013, 17-year old Kendrick Johnson’s body was discovered in a gym mat in Valdosta, GA. Local authorities and a government medical examiner determined that Johnson died of “positional asphyxia” due to an accident.  They described the accident as Kendrick placing his shoes inside the gym mat and while retrieving them, he became stuck in the mat.

In October 2013, Kendrick’s parent had an independent autopsy performed.  The cause of death was determined to be “apparent non-accidental blunt force trauma”.  CNN reported on the independent autopsy.  In the civil cases filed by the Johnson’s, the independent autopsy was not entered on the record.  In their depositions, the Johnson’s testified that they had no proof that Kendrick was killed.

Thereafter, the Department of Justice opened an investigation.  In June 2016, the DOJ closed their investigation citing insufficient evidence.

During the DOJ’s investigation, two suspects were brothers Brandon and Brian Bell. Brian Bell now attends the University of Akron where he plays linebacker on the football team.

Brian Bell

On September 22, 2016, Raycom News Network reported that Brian Bell was charged with misdemeanor assault.   The charge stems from a May fight.  The victim, a 24-year old, said that he had a disagreement with one of Bell’s friends.  He alleged that Brian Bell yelled at him and sucker punched him in the face.  The victim was taken to Akron General Hospital and treated for a cut on his nose and swollen eyes.

Bell was arraigned on September 30, 2016.   Arrest Nation, which reports on the arrests of athletes, also reported the arrest.

The media then went silent.

According to court records, on October 12, 2016, Brian Bell entered a plea bargain for the lesser charge of disorderly conduct.  His sentence included payment of costs to the victim, no contact with the victim, and a $247.00 fine.

Nothing is reported as to whether Brian Bell’s arrest and conviction resulted in temporary suspension or other penalty for the football team.

Investigation Into The Death of Kendrick Johnson – DOJ’s Announcement of No Charges

(I’m writing this on 3 hours of sleep, so please forgive any typographical errors.)

Kendrick Johnson

In January 2013, 17-year old Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a gym mat in the Lowndes High School gym in Georgia. The US Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia opened an investigation in October of 2013.

This afternoon, DOJ offices announced that they will not file criminal charges in the death of Kendrick Johnson due to “insufficient evidence” to prove that anyone “willfully violated Kendrick Johnson’s civil rights” or committed any other crime.

Acting U.S. Attorney Carole Rendon stated;

 “The Department of Justice, in particular the lawyers and investigators who have worked tirelessly on this investigation, express their most sincere condolences to Kendrick Johnson’s parents, family, and friends. We cannot imagine the pain of their loss, or the depths of their sorrow. We regret that we were unable to provide them with more definitive answers about Kendrick’s tragic death.”

In October 2015, the DOJ filed a motion in the civil case that Kendrick’s parents filed for wrongful death.  In their filings, they said that their investigation expanded to include witness tampering and obstruction of justice.  They also advised the Georgia court that the grand jury had convened.

ACLU Intervenes In Case Involving Disclosure of Personal Information

This morning, Victor Blackwell of CNN, (@VictorCNN), tweeted that the ACLU has submitted a brief in the Kendrick Johnson case. They have taken a friend of the court position pertaining to the disclosure of the identity of 23 Twitter handles and cites First Amendment and privacy.

It’s actually the civil case filed by Kendrick’s parents for wrongful death.   The Bell family responded with a counter-suit, alleging defamation. In their counter-claim, they allege that Kendrick’s mom used “authorized agents” to defame them on social media.

On November 2, 2015, I wrote in a post that people had been notified by Twitter that their account information had been subpoenaed in the Johnson v. Bell case.   The Department of Justice filed a motion to intervene and a motion to stay discovery for 180 days pending completion of their investigation. The DOJ has extended their investigation into witness tampering and obstruction. The court denied the DOJ’s motions.

Also reported in that post is that a person who is a known internet harasser and extortionist tweeted to several individuals that their Twitter account information had been subpoenaed, and he did so days before Twitter notified those individuals. It’s the same person that one of our (as of Nov. 23, 2015, form writer) Santiago, has a restraining order against and is currently in court in a contempt proceeding, alleging violation of that restraining order.

Search Warrants Executed – The Death Of Kendrick Johnson

On January 10, 2013, the body of 17-year old Kendrick Johnson was discovered in a rolled-up gym mat in the gym of the high school he attended. The Lowndes County Georgia Sheriff’s Office conducted the initial investigation and concluded that Kendrick died from a freak accident. They said he was going for a shoe that was at the bottom of the mat, got stuck, and died from asphyxiation.

Kendrick’s body was subsequently exhumed and the family had an independent autopsy performed that among other things, found that all of Kendrick’s internal organs were missing, and had been replaced with newspaper. The private pathologist concluded the teen died of blunt force trauma to the neck.

Videos from inside the school were released, and caused many questions, many of which pertained to missing portions or what appeared to be edits.

In October 2013, the Department of Justice began an investigation under the direction of U.S. Attorney Michael Moore.

One Person Charged In The Investigation Of The Death Of Kendrick Johnson

Kendrick Johnson would have graduated high school this year.

It’s rather insignificant because it doesn’t lead to identifying who killed 17-year old Kendrick Johnson, but it’s significant in the sense that there are consequences for people who break the law.

You might remember about the anonymous email purporting to have overheard a confession in the killing of 17-year old Kendrick Johnson. We reported it in March 2014.

The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous email dated January 27, 2014. The sender did not suggest that he or she witnessed the confession. Rather, the sender claims to have been given that information by someone who purportedly is aware of the confession by a person implicated in the email.

WCTV Reports On A Cyber-Harrassing Blogger

We’ve seen it over and over again. When law enforcement releases information to the media, written autopsy reports are included, but never autopsy photos. We get the drawings of a body showing wounds, but not actual photos. At trial is where the autopsy photos are shown to the jury. When those trials are live-streamed, the public seldom sees the autopsy photos because they are not nice. Medical examiners explain the autopsy. The photos are not left to the opinions of lay people.

That however, did not stop a blogger from not only obtaining autopsy photos, but also giving her opinion about what they show and challenging the mother of the dead teen to prove her wrong.

The video on the link for WCTV reports that they reached out to the blogger, but have not received a response. I urge you to watch the video. It includes an interview with Kendrick’s mom. Jackie Johnston. Kendrick’s mom told WCTV that she blocked the person with the blog on Twitter after constant harassment, and doesn’t know why the person is attacking her family. Maybe Blackbutterfly7 can tell her why.

17-year old Kendrick Johnson was found dead on January 11, 2013, in the Lowndes High School gymnasium in the State of Georgia. His body was rolled up in a gym mat. A preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that the death was accidental. Johnson’s family had a private pathologist conduct another autopsy which concluded that Kendrick died from blunt force trauma. Most people first hearing about the case, and seeing the photos of the gym and the mats, realized that Kendrick’s body could not “fall” into a tightly rolled up gym mat that was closely placed beside other gym mats.

WCTV reports:

“Valdosta, GA – On January 14th 2013, three days after Kendrick Johnson was found inside a rolled up gym mat at Lowndes High School, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations did an autopsy on the teen’s body. Jackie Johnson says last Thursday, those autopsy reports showed up on the website Re-News it, a blog that anonymously posts evidence and theories on national stories, what else they found, came as a shock.”

It’s only anonymous to those who have not been harassed and threatened by the cyber-extortionist cult. The blogger is Vicki Pate, sometimes spelled “Viki Pate” and on Twitter, now spelled “Vickie Pate.”

Pate got the autopsy photos and claimed that attorney Benjamin Crump lied about the independent autopsy. She is associated with others who publicly announce their mission against the Black Grievance Industry, which they refer to as the “BGI.”

Death and Racism

Hat tip to Glenn Robinson for tweeting out the article.

The article on The Root hit me hard;

 Reject the “He was a good kid” or “He was a criminal” narrative and lift up the “Black lives matter” narrative. Those who knew him say Brown was a good kid. But that’s not why his death is tragic. His death isn’t tragic because he was on his way to college the following week. His death is tragic because he was a human being and his life mattered. The good-kid narrative might provoke some sympathy, but what it really does is support the lie that as a rule black people, black men in particular, have a norm of violence or criminal behavior. The good-kid narrative says that this kid didn’t deserve to die because his goodness was an exception to the rule. This is wrong. This kid didn’t deserve to die, period. Similarly, reject the “He was a criminal” narrative surrounding the convenience store robbery because even if Brown did steal some cigars and have a scuffle with the shopkeeper, that is still not a justification for his killing. All black lives matter, not just the ones we deem to be “good.”

It caused me to think back about why, during the George Zimmerman case, I did not debate nor defend against accusations that Trayvon was a “thug.”   Here we are again with Michael Brown, and there are folks trying to posture Michael as deserving of death because he was not a “good kid. “

The quote above explains what I have not been able to put in words.   In essence, those arguments for justification convey that there are good Blacks who deserve to live, and bad Blacks whose lives should be cut-short. That standard is defined by people through racially bigoted eyes that are never satisfied. If they cannot find anything to use to criticize the victim, or when their attempts are proven false, they attack the family, and even attack extended families.

Kendrick Johnson’s Parents Sue School District

Hat Tip To Yahtzee.

Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson have filed suit against a Georgia school district claiming it was negligent in protecting their son from harassment and bullying, which they allege led to his death. The lawsuit, filed in State Superior Court, also alleges that Lowndes County Board of Education violated Kendrick’s constitutional right to equal protection based on race.

Discoveries in this case have been numerous and shocking. The Sheriff’s Office ruled that Kendrick’s death was accidental.   They contend that Kendrick climbed into the center of the gym mat to reach for a shoe, got stuck, and (in lay man’s terms), died from inability to breathe while upside down.

Photographs of the scene provide that Kendrick’s shoes were on top of his feet, and not at the bottom of the gym mat.

Anonymous Email In Kendrick Johnson Case A Rumor

I truly wish that people in the media would learn that words have meaning, and use the proper words. A rumor can be fake, but to say that an email is fake is not the same thing.

On March 19, 2014, we reported on a claim of confession probed in the Kendrick Johnson death.

Through their website, the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous email dated January 27, 2014. On January 28, 2014, Chief Assistant District Attorney Bradfield Shealy issued a subpoena to Mediacom Communications Corporation to provide the subscriber information for the person submitting that email.

 
The sender did not suggest that he or she witnessed the confession. Rather, the sender claims to have been given that information by someone who purportedly is aware of the confession by one person implicated in the email.

Claim of Confession Probed In Kendrick Johnson Death

CNN reports that a Lowndes County, Georgia, assistant district attorney has ordered a communications company to hand over internet records.  Investigators received an anonymous email claiming an ex-schoolmate reportedly confessed to killing Kendrick Johnson.

Kendrick Johnson

Chief Assistant District Attorney Bradfield Shealy issued the subpoena to Mediacom Communications Corporation on January 28. They were ordered to provide the Lowndes County grand jury with subscriber information associated with the e-mail sent through the Lowndes County sheriff’s office’s website or submit the documents to the district attorney’s office or Lt. Jones before February 26.

Through a state Open Records Act, CNN now has the email and the subpoena from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office.

The anonymous email is dated January 27^th.  The sender does not suggest that he or she witnessed the confession.  Rather, the sender claims to have been given that information by someone who purportedly is aware of the confession by one person implicated in the email.

Kendrick Johnson – Open Thread

Kendrick Johnson

Kendrick Johnson’s parents and their legal counselors, attorneys Chevene King and Benjamin Crump, are working hard, and within legal options, to uncover the truth surrounding the death of the 17 year-old.  Their efforts led to discoveries and also having the U.S. Department of Justice open an investigation.

Kendrick Johnson-Complaint Filed About Missing Organs

It’s bad enough when a son is missing and later found dead.  That is multiplied when police say it was an accident, but the body gives sign of a struggle and beating.  When it’s discovered that internal organs were removed and replaced with newspaper, that’s enough to send any parent into numerous, emotional hoops — and demands for answers.

Kendrick Johnson rally