VALDOSTA – A second defamation lawsuit has been filed against Ebony Magazine and author Fred Rosen for a series of articles about the death of Kendrick Johnson that have since been removed from the publication’s website.    

William and Nora Eakin filed the suit Monday in the Southern District of Georgia on behalf of their daughter. The suit seeks $1.25 million in compensatory damages for alleged libelous statements printed by Ebony Magazine online and alleged slanderous comments made by Rosen during interviews.

The suit also asks for $250,000 in punitive damages.

The Eakins now join FBI Agent Rick Bell and his family in suing Ebony and Rosen.

The Eakins claim their daughter was defamed along with Bell and his sons.

 The Bells filed a $5 million defamation suit in August after the magazine published a series of articles between Nov. 19, 2013 and April 9, 2014 that claimed 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson was murdered at Lowndes High School in January 2013.

Students found Johnson’s body upside down in a rolled-up gym mat in the school’s old gym. A state autopsy ruled the 17-year-old’s death accidental. Johnson parent’s insists their son died of foul play. The case has been under the review of U.S. Attorney Michael Moore for more than a year.

Rosen’s Ebony articles used pseudonyms to name the sons of FBI Agent Bell as possible suspects in Johnson’s death. His April 9 article claims the younger brother flew into a rage after learning that his girlfriend “had sexual intercourse with Kendrick Johnson” and planned to kill him with the help of a friend. The lawsuit denies those claims.

The Eakin’s suit asserts the article clearly references their daughter even though it does not use her name and that the article’s allegations are completely false. The family claims that at the time of the incident the Bell’s son and their daughter were not in a relationship.

Rosen’s claims were reportedly extrapolated from a Jan. 27, 2014 email sent to the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office in which the sender claims to have overheard a confession in the Johnson case.

LCSO investigated the email’s claims and found them to be without merit, according to Lt. Stryde Jones. An Open Records Act request in March 2014 made the email, including the full names of students mentioned, available to the public.

The Eakin’s daughter was named in the email along with Bell’s youngest son.

The Eakin’s suit claims Rosen and Ebony Magazine should have known the email’s claims where untrue because of a Valdosta Daily Times interview with the email’s author published on March 27, 2014.

The author, an LHS student, recanted her claims during the interview, saying “nothing in the email is true.”

The author said her email was based on rumors she heard and thought might be true based in large part on the previous reporting about the Johnson case published by Ebony.

The suit claims Ebony’s editors should have known the claims in Rosen’s April 9 article were untrue because of LCSO investigative findings and The Times’ interview with the email’s author which was published almost two weeks prior.

The Eakins claim Rosen’s Ebony articles have resulted in wide-spread speculation that their daughter was either responsible for Johnson’s death or participated in a coverup. They said she has also been the target of online harassment through social media sites.

In addition to $1.5 million, the suit also asks for attorney’s fees.