Nearly 12 years after discovering 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson’s body in a rolled-up gym mat at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Georgia, his parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson, recently filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Public Health in Atlanta.
The Nov. 8 suit was filed after unsuccessful attempts requesting that their son’s death certificate be amended in line with the findings of an independent forensic pathologist. The case was closed as a “tragic accident” shortly after the teen’s death.
The suit, filed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, seeks to amend Kendrick Johnson’s cause of death from “positional asphyxia,” as related to a freak accident in the school’s gymnasium, to “non-accidental blunt force trauma,”
Alleging a physical confrontation between their son and unknown parties during daytime school hours, according to recent media statements shared with The Final Call.
“Forensic Pathologist Dr. William Anderson is the medical examiner who performed two autopsies on Kendrick (and) determined Kendrick’s cause of death to be non-accidental blunt force trauma and provided the Johnson’s with forensic evidence of the ruptured carotid artery from the right side of Kendrick’s neck that caused the teen’s death.
The evidence directly contradicts the autopsy report by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that Kendrick had no significant injuries and died from suffocation after accidentally falling inside a gym tumbling mat,” the Nov. 15 news release said in part.
“The Johnson’s recently uncovered pictures from the autopsy performed by the GBI that show Kendrick’s body had been tampered with after authorities removed his body from the school gym and before his body was returned to the family for burial.
One photograph shows Kendrick’s upper body with an abundance of peeling dead skin. In the second of his upper body, the peeling dead skin seen in the first photo mysteriously isn’t there,”
The media statement continued. It further noted that evidence tampering is a criminal offense under federal and state law and that the Johnson family reported these findings to the appropriate federal authorities.
Filed as a civil action demanding a trial by jury, the Johnson’s suit is “a case brought pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, codified as 42 U.S.C §1983 and 42 U.S.C §1986 to correct unlawful deprivation of rights, neglect to protect rights.
And disparate treatment based on systemic racial discrimination in the State of Georgia, during the time periods of September 7, 2023 through the present, November 8, 2024.
Which is from the first request by the Plaintiff’s to the Georgia Department of Public Health (hereinafter “DPH”) to amend the erroneous and fraudulent cause of death on the death certificate of their minor son Kendrick Lamar Johnson (hereinafter “KJ”).”
Their case further claims that:
The “Plaintiffs have been adversely affected and endured deprivation of rights and neglect to provide equal protection under the laws by the Defendant concerning the scientifically and physically impossible narrative that their minor child KJ died from a freak accident during school hours inside an unsupervised gymnasium at Lowndes County High School in Valdosta Georgia.
The Defendant denied the Plaintiffs, 1) their right to a timely and accurate amended death certificate for their minor son KJ, a statutory mandate under the Georgia Code; 2) civil and Due Process rights under the United States and Georgia Constitutions.”
The Johnsons submitted their first request that the death certificate be amended on or about September 7, 2023, and made a second request a month later, on or about October 6, 2023, both in accordance with applicable state laws and regulations.
“The Plaintiffs requested that the death certificate for KJ be amended based on two medical examinations performed by Forensic Pathologist William Anderson,” the lawsuit said. “Dr. Anderson determined KJ died from non-accidental blunt force trauma and provided pictures of a collapsed and hemorrhaging carotid artery from his autopsy.”
The Johnsons also allege that recently discovered documents from government files revealed “unmistakable and irrefutable instances of evidence tampering after KJ’s body was removed from the Lowndes County High School property. None of the evidence has been presented to a Jury nor has there been a trial or customary Due Process rights pursuant to the United States Constitution.”
The Final Call contacted the Georgia Department of Public Health and received the following response from Dancy Nydam, director of communications: “The Georgia Department of Public Health does not comment on pending litigation.”
“They have not received any type of due process in this system and the amount of frustration, I don’t know if there are words,” Mr. Jonathan Burrs, the Johnson family spokesperson told The Final Call. He described the family’s excruciating fight for justice that he believes has fallen on the deaf ears of an indifferent and unresponsive local, state, and federal government.
“It’s affected their health. Jackie has lost weight. She often tries to eat and can’t keep anything down. Emotionally, I would say they would have post-traumatic stress from a laymen’s term, but as a veteran, I know what it looks like, and they both have been traumatized unimaginable;
And now that the evidence is out, there is no question in anyone’s mind that there’s a multitude of bad actors behind the scenes enabling ongoing corruption,” Mr. Burrs said.
“There’s a multitude of laws that have been broken and continue to be broken and the state in general continues to be complicit,” he charged.
Mr. Burrs also said the Johnsons are deeply disappointed with some leaders in government, politics, or society, and said the people must do better, regardless of creed, class, or color, because what happened to Kendrick could very well happen to them or their loved ones next
“(What) something, anyone with a telephone can do is call Congress and shut down their phone lines, just shut them down with calls,” Mr. Burrs insisted. Use social media and call two people, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and the Democratic Minority Leader, Hakeem Jefferies, just those two,” he said.
“Tell them we demand justice for Kendrick Johnson.”
