Kendrick Johnson Death News Update: Parents File $100M Lawsuit Against FBI, Georgia School District and Others Alleging Cover-up
The Georgia parents of a 17-year-old high school student Kendrick Johnson have filed a $100 million wrongful death suit against 38 people, including a local FBI agent they say coaxed his sons to "violently assault" their son, leading to his death.
Kendrick Johnson's body was found inside a rolled-up gym mat at the Lownes High School all three of the teens attended in January of 2013, CBS News reports.
Filed in DeKalb County Superior Court, the suit also names Johnson's two classmates as well as another student as defendants. Also accused of taking part in what family attorneys allege was an elaborate cover-up are several members of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Valdosta Police Department, the city of Valdosta, the Lowndes County Sheriff's Department and the Lowndes County School District.
Officials from the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office have officially ruled Johnson's death an accident, maintaining that he fell head-first into an upright mat while trying to retrieve a shoe. An autopsy officially ruled the cause of death as asphyxiation.
From the very beginning, members of the Johnson family have suspected foul play, going as far as to have the teen's body formally exhumed so a second autopsy could be conducted. It was when those tests were performed that a private pathologist determined the cause of death was actually blunt force trauma to the neck.
According to CNN, the subsequent examination also found that all of Johnson's organs had been removed and his body stuffed with newspaper.
Since then, Johnson's family and their attorneys have primarily focused on the two sons of the local FBI agent. Through their attorneys, Johnson parents argue the brothers had motive to harm their son and both of them were on the campus at the time he went missing. Reportedly, about a year before, one of the brothers was involved in a fight with Johnson aboard a school bus.
No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the case.
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