VALDOSTA — A new lawsuit has been filed by the family of Kendrick Johnson, again alleging a coverup in their son’s death.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Bibb County, comes on the heels of a previous federal suit being dismissed when the attorney representing KJ’s parents failed to meet filing deadlines.  The new lawsuit also accuses more than 40 people of conspiring to cover up the cause of death while accusing others of killing the teen.  

Johnson’s body was found upside down in a vertically stored gym mat at Lowndes High School on January 10, 2013. A state autopsy ruled Johnson’s death accidental, and a federal review of the case ended in 2016 when the Department of Justice announced it had not found “sufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges.” KJ’s family has consistently claimed the teenager’s death was the result of foul play. 

Last month, video analysis from the Federal Bureau of Investigation cleared Brian Bell, a former LHS student, of involvement in Johnson’s death. Analysis of school surveillance footage concluded Bell and another student not related to Bell “were not in the general vicinity of the old gym where Johnson was last seen.” Bell’s older brother, Branden, was off campus traveling to a wrestling match at the time Johnson was last seen. However, the Bell brothers, their father, Rick Bell, and 42 other state and local officials are named in the Johnson’s latest lawsuit.

The suit alleges Rick Bell, who was an FBI agent at the time, personally placed Johnson’s body in the gym mat with the direct help of former Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine and Lowndes County School Superintendent Wes Taylor. But in 2015, the Johnson’s lawyer removed that same allegation from a previous complaint, blaming the claim on a “typographical error.”

The judge who ruled the Johnson’s to pay legal fees to many of the same defendants named in their latest suit is expected to rule this month on exactly how much they will be required to pay. The amount sought was initially more than $900,000.

Adam Floyd, Editor in Chief at Valdosta Today, is a former Valdosta Daily Times crime reporter who reported extensively on the Kendrick Johnson Case. This article is published by permission. Floyd can be reached by email at: afloyd@blackcrow.fm